Recap: Teaching in the Weeks Surrounding the Election

On October 14, 2024, CETL staff Josh Eyler, Emily Pitts Donahoe, and Liz Norell presented a workshop entitled “Teaching in the Weeks Surrounding the Election” to help instructors prepare for periods of heightened emotions, like those expected around the upcoming US presidential election.

To start, as part of the university’s Get Out the Vote effort, Castel Sweet shared resources around voter registration, absentee voting, and election day transportation to and from local polling stations. From there, the facilitators dove into strategies for what teachers can do in the days before and after the election.

Strategies

For tumultuous times or emotionally charged moments, instructors should first acknowledge something happened. While many well-intentioned educators think that getting on with the work of the class and giving students a break from the news can be beneficial, research has shown that this is not the best approach. Rather, students prefer that their instructors show human responses to current events and acknowledge deeply-held feelings around them.

This can take the form of a brief preface or a full lesson, depending on the learning goals you have for your students. Below are a few scripts you can use in your classroom to give space and time for students to reflect:

• “I want to acknowledge the range of emotions that might be in the room right now. (However you’re feeling, you are welcome in this course.)”

• “This has been a challenging election season. Let’s take a moment to pause and collect ourselves before beginning class.”

• “Regardless of what you think about the outcome of the election, I ask that you recognize and honor the feelings and perspectives of your classmates.”

In addition to acknowledging the event and providing space for reflection, you can also consider the following questions to connect your course to the election:

• How are the topics discussed in my course impacted by the policy and/or funding issues raised by this election? 

• How might my discipline or field be affected by policy decisions as a result of the election? How has it been affected by past policies or judicial decisions? 

• How can I show students that folks in this discipline or field are contributing to conversations about policy or the election?

• Are there skills students are building in my course that can be practiced in an election related context? What skills do students learn in my field that are also important for our democracy?

You may also want to share relevant resources, such as free counseling services and politically-focused student organizations, to ensure students know where to go for support and are encouraged to do so. Instructors may also find it helpful to use strategies from previous workshops on how to lower the temperature around politics in the classroom  and how to lead difficult discussions.

Lessons Learned

Each CETL staff member then shared lessons they’ve learned from teaching experiences in past elections. Each of us has different approaches to discussing our beliefs in the classroom, and we encourage instructors to spend time reflecting on how their contexts and values may influence what they share with students.

Josh, for instance, was teaching a writing and composition class early in his career when he gave an unfiltered reaction to the election results. He noticed students respond differently to him thereafter, and he never recovered the same rapport he had with them. This experience taught him two key lessons:

1. Take time to reflect (personally and/or as a class) in order to have a meaningful conversation.

2. Focus on issues rather than on candidates.

Liz similarly chooses not to share her personal beliefs in the classroom. She has found that speaking in support of any side will likely alienate some students, while others try to respond in ways they think will garner her favor. Given this, the day after a contentious election, Liz sometimes invites students to sit and talk—but only if they want; no forced disclosure or discussion is required. She also acknowledged her ongoing work to set boundaries with students so she can offer them time to reflect without taking on the full emotional labor of helping them process those emotions. Instead, she recommended teachers refer students to mental health professionals and others who are trained to help in these situations.

Emily shared a former student’s experience in a K-12 setting. The day after the 2016 presidential election, the teacher came into class assuming that all students were deeply troubled about the election results, when in reality, most students, who were only 10 or 11 years old at the time, were unaffected by it. The misalignment between the teacher’s assumption and students’ reality resulted in an awkward classroom atmosphere. This served as a reminder to not make assumptions about how students may be feeling, especially if there may be significant differences in political consciousness.

Making Plans

To ensure workshop participants had a tangible plan for how to approach the upcoming election, the session closed with 15 minutes for instructors to write down what they plan to say/do in the weeks surrounding the election. Josh encouraged participants to reflect and prepare with the following questions:

• What is your tolerance for debate/disagreement in the classroom?

• What topics get YOU most heated? What about those topics feels so activating?

• How does your discipline invite or shun “hot moments” in the classroom?

• How do you plan to acknowledge the election (and its results) with your students?

• How can you give time for students to connect the election to your course goals or concepts? 

• What resources can you share to help students in the future?

You can access the slides for “Teaching in the Weeks Surrounding the Election” here. We hope you’ll join us for our final fall workshop in November, on Developing a Trauma-aware Pedagogy!