Navigating Difficult Moments in Teaching Diversity and Social Justice

This essential resource helps educators tackle the most common and challenging dilemmas that arise in today’s classroom—such as diversity, privilege, and intersectionality.  This book examines common challenges that arise for educators teaching social justice and diversity-related courses and offers best practices for addressing them. Contributors cover issues such as the many roles instructors play, inside and outside of college and university classrooms, for example, in handling personal threats, responsibly incorporating current events related to social justice into classroom discussion, navigating one's own stigmatized or privileged identities, dealing with bias in teaching evaluations, and engaging in self-care. The authors' backgrounds offer unique perspectives from which to approach such complex subject matter; several contributors are feminist or intersectional scholars with the experience and expertise to address the pedagogical dilemmas that often arise in teaching social justice. Many of the issues discussed arise from the authors' own experiences as teachers in the current social climate; however, they also are verified by research on quality teaching in general and teaching about diversity specifically. 

Table of Contents:
Preface Faye Crosby 1: Pedagogical Humility and Peer Mentoring for Social Justice Education Kim A. Case, Mary E. Kite, and Wendy R. Williams 2: Ground Rules for Discussing Diversity: Complex Considerations Susan B. Goldstein 3: Social Justice Burnout: Engaging in Self-Care While Doing Diversity Work Asia Eaton and Leah R. Warner 4: Mistakes Were Made by Me: Recovering When an Instructor’s Error Affects Classroom Dynamics Mary E. Kite, Samuel M. Colbert, and Scott M. Barrera   5: When the Professor Experiences Stereotype Threat in the Classroom Desdamona Rios, Kim A. Case, Salena M. Brody and David P. Rivera 6: Becoming a Target: Anonymous Threats While Teaching Diversity Courses or Working on Social Justice Issues Lisa S. Wagner and J. J. Garrett-Walker 7: Inclusion–Exclusion: Balancing Viewpoint Diversity and Harmful Speech in the Multicultural Classroom Salena M. Brody and Darren R. Bernal 8: The Efficacy Paradox: Teaching About Structural Inequality While Keeping Students’ Hope Alive Lisa M. Brown 9: Emotionally Charged News in the Classroom Ryan M. Pickering   10: Raising the Consciousness of Students Holding Ingroup Stereotypes Lisa M. Brown and Wendy R. Williams 11: White Privilege in the Classroom Leah R. Warner, Lisa S. Wagner, and Patrick R. Grzanka 12: Navigating Difficult Moments Outside the Classroom Wendy R. Williams and F. Tyler Sergent 13: Contemporary Issues in Terminology: Using Gender-Inclusive Language to Create Affirming Spaces Amanda J. Wyrick 14: Aging as an Element of Diversity: Best Practices for Challenging Classroom Conversations and Avoiding Ageism Lisa S. Wagner, Tana M. Luger and Matthew Calamia 15: Outsiders Teaching Insiders: How Instructors From Privileged Groups Can Effectively Teach About Diversity Susan B. Goldstein   16: When Students Frame Prejudicial Speech as “Freedom of Speech”: Classroom and Institutional Implications Leah R. Warner 17: Student Evaluations of Teaching: Can Teaching Social Justice Negatively Affect One’s Career? Guy A. Boysen 18: Flotsam and Jetsam: Staying the Course While Navigating Difficult Moments in Teaching Diversity and Social Justice Wendy R. Williams, Mary E. Kite, and Kim A. Case