We repeated our Pecha Kucha presentation from the Intercultural U event at the March 2013 CTLT all-staff meeting where we asked the same question, “What makes a class unsafe?” Everybody was given a sheet of paper, a pen, and a few moments to reflect and write down their responses. It was pleasantly surprising that everyone was willing to participate in the activity. We received a lot of responses, which you can see in the wordle below.

Made from wordle.net. Download the PDF.

If you’re interested in doing something with the responses (e.g. a different kind of visualization), you can copy the responses from a Google doc.

The responses gave me pause and made me realize the commonalities within their diversity. Below are a few of the take away points I learned:

• Being put on the spot is a difficult situation to be in. You are pressured to answer questions that you may not have had time to think about or reflect on. Give people the time to think before they respond to questions or an opportunity to address the situation at a later time.
• Discussions thrive from the diversity of ideas being shared. Enter discussions with an open mind. Defend for your ideas with respect towards your colleagues, students or friends. Be willing to change your mind or be convinced by others.
• Be aware of the group dynamics. Invite others to the conversation and give them a chance to share their ideas. Value the diversity of everybody’s background, experience and skills.
• Be aware of yourself. We may unintentionally use discriminatory language, share jokes with racist undertones, or be overly assertive and dominate the conversation. Many things we do may come from habit or we are just unaware. Be ready to learn and to change.

Take a look at the wordle and reflect on what people have mentioned. What are your take-aways? Did you experience any of these? Is there anything missing from the responses? What can you do to make a class safe to share ideas and hold difficult conversations?