Philosopher Jason Swartwood (Saint Paul College) writes:
As a reader of your blog, I appreciate the discussions of free expression and academic freedom that often take place there. One aspect I haven't seen much discussion of is classroom policies in which instructors explicitly state and discuss with students the value of free expression in their classroom so as to encourage productive discussion. Since I teach mostly controversial topics (in Ethics, Bioethics, and Feminist Philosophy courses, especially), I find it very helpful to explicitly discuss what will be our shared standards on the first day of class. This has so far (fingers crossed!) helped students deal productively with their discomfort even when we're discussing things such as (to pick probably the most inflammatory examples) gender critical views of gender or Tuvel's transracialism analogy.
I thought it would be nice to have a discussion of what other faculty do to proactively head-off misguided attempts to stifle free expression in the classroom while also promoting an inclusive classroom atmosphere. As an example of what I mean, I have a classroom policy I use posted on my website, along with exercises I do on the first day to get students talking about it. Given the volatile climate we live in, I thought it would be useful to share ideas about how we proactively promote and model important values like free expression and inclusion.
Comments are open for suggestions and ideas from readers.
