So, Dr. Green, would you like to tell us a little bit about repair and recovery in the classroom for faculty when racism shows up and their
instruction in their teaching and content or just in something that bubbles up in the classroom and what they can do in those moments?
Sure. So when we think about incidents occurring in the classroom or incidents occurring between people,
it's very likely that it could be something that is bias related or racism related or sexism related.
And so we have to think about what needs to happen in order to be able to account for the injury that's occurring around that sexist,
racist remark or comment or behavior. In order to be able to talk about that,
we may actually need to back up just a step so it becomes important to recognize that
that faculty are in the classroom creating these relationships with students to the
degree that they want their students to be successful in both learning and thriving
in the classroom and then advancing through the material and mastering the material.
Right. That's a really important part of the student, teacher or professor student relationship.
It's also very likely that professors work to create community in the classroom.
In order for students to be able to relate to each other and have discussions about the material
in a way that is thoughtful and considerate and so challenging and stimulating for students.
So we have to hold in context that there are lots of relationships happening in the classroom.
Right. That we don't necessarily always talk about being an important part of the learning environment.
The second piece that I want to be able to put on the table is that many faculty members come to their discipline as experts,
people who have moved through and attain some type of graduate training.
Maybe you folks who have achieved their terminal degree in their field. So they're really perceived as experts in the field.
Right. One of the pieces also that's really related to being an expert in the classroom
is that we are here with all of our knowledge and all of our experience.
But there are two really important pieces of the that we should also be considering.
It's possible that we could go through all of our graduate education, learning our discipline,
and never really learn what it means to manage interpersonal dynamics in the classroom with the students or among the students.
It's also possible that we could go through all of our graduate education and not learn anything
about race or racism or how those also manifest within interpersonal dynamics in the classroom.
And so being an expert in your subject matter doesn't necessarily set us up to be experts in some of these human related interactions,
as well as some of these really difficult, emotionally charged topics.
What that means is that it oftentimes sets faculty up to not necessarily be in a place of humility or even even if somebody is umble around.
So like being in the classroom, what it can promote is the sense. I know all and there are really no mistakes for me to make in this space.
What we know, though, is that in the context of relationships, people make mistakes because we're all human.
And that's what humans do. Right. Expert generally doesn't go with human.
Right. And so we have to really make some room in the classroom in our relationships with students to be more human.
Let's take an example of a black female student who says something in the classroom.
It gets overlooked.
And then somebody else picks up that comment a little bit later and the professor jumps right on top of it and affirms what is said.
Right. So what could happen in that situation is a number of things.
Somebody could just bring it to the professor's attention that they actually did,
that a student might go afterwards and have a conversation with the professor to say,
I noticed that this thing happened right where a black woman's voice was overlooked in the classroom.
What happens more often than not in those situations is that a faculty member might say something like,
oh, that's not what I did or that's not what I was intending to do. Right. They immediately might dismiss what's occurring.
What I think becomes really important in these situations is that we work to repair the relationship that we have
with the student even as we operate in a form of recovery in those moments when somebody points it out to us.
So what I want to do is just walk through a few steps that feel really important from
mastering or entering into the process of recovering and then repairing the relationship.
All right. The first step that I think is really important is for a faculty member who is being brought this information by a student or another peer.
Right. Is that we have to recognize that we're going to experience some real physiological reactions to that.
It's quite possible that our temperature may rise, our heartbeat might increase our throat.
I might actually tighten or we might actually feel some constriction on our bodies somewhere.
What is suggesting is we might be feeling some guilt, some shame, some embarrassment.
And what we know is that those experiences are really, really tied to how our bodies respond when we go into sort of like the fight flight or
freeze reaction because of what's happening in that moment is it feels like your expertize,
your presence in the classroom is under a threat. Right.
We have to be able to move into seeing that. That's what's happening. One of the things that most people fear and the world is to be called racist.
It's probably one of the most egregious things that a person could be called.
Right. So to have somebody put in front of you that you may have done something racist in the classroom,
it immediately evokes that fight flight or flee or freeze response from sort of like that that need to protect yourself.
Right. So recognize, first off, that you're going to have a reaction to what what's happening.
Right. It can be both physiological as well as emotional. And then certainly there is going to be so like a story that you begin to tell
yourself a part of the story is and you need to recognize what the story is.
Right. I'm not that person. I'm a good person, right?
The last time somebody challenged me in the classroom, this did go well.
Right. So. So whatever the story is, we have to become aware of the story.
Another way of thinking about this is that to become aware of the story that we tell ourselves when we find ourselves in a conflictual situation.
Right. Even if this story is like conflict is bad.
And I don't want this to be happening right now or I always lose and conflict, whatever, whatever the story happens to be.
We have to become much more aware of.
That's what's happening as you move into becoming more of an expert on stories like understanding your own body's reaction.
You all start to move into a place of being able to say what is most important right now is this relationship that I'm having with this student.
And a student is telling me that they have been harmed in the course of the of the classroom
or in the course of a discussion or some other activity that's related to my course.
Be concerned about the harm. Be concerned about the impact that you are having on another student.
This is not the time to raise and try to explain your intent.
The moment we move into trying to explain our intent to a student who has been harmed in our classroom,
what we're actually saying to them is your feelings, your harm doesn't actually matter.
That's really not what we want to be doing in good, healthy relationships, right?
Well, what actually doing is understanding what happened that that that allowed somebody to
get harmed or what did I do or what did I say that resulted in somebody getting harmed.
Right. So set your intent aside or set your knee to explain your intent aside.
What I often say to people to do in those moments is to do one of two things, to be able to say, you know what?
I did say that. Right? Just acknowledge what what was said or what was done so that you can actually open up
the relationship with a student and they might share with you an alternative to that.
Is it especially if you don't remember what was said or did, is to say, you know what, I may have said or done that.
Right. You never want to say I didn't do that, because what that does,
it immediately puts the student on the defensive because you're operating out of that lizard brain place where you need to protect yourself.
Right. There's actually no need to protect yourself in this moment.
What we fail to understand is that when somebody is bringing us feedback like this, they're actually bringing us a gift.
It doesn't feel like it in the moment, but it's actually a gift. It's an opportunity to learn and to grow and to understand.
How do I navigate these things a little bit differently? Right. So here's what I know.
If a student, a student of color, of a faculty member of color or a peer of color brings you this information,
if you say to them, yes, I did say that, or of course, I may have said that, given that that's the way that we're all socialize.
It actually changes that the dynamic of what can happen in relationships.
It actually opens up the relationship to the to the person who is bringing you that that that they've been offended.
It says, oh, this person actually may be a little bit safer than the world has generally taught me.
If the relationship feels safe, right. And you acknowledge that something may have happened, what you can then say to the person is,
if possible, can you help me understand how this impacted you?
If you open up the relationship and you say, I may have done that,
a person is much more likely to want to share with you how they experience it or what how it impacts them or how they felt.
Right. If you move into a place of saying, I didn't do that, that's not what I meant.
The person is not going to feel like they can share with you what was hurtful because it's not safe for them.
Right.
What I've observed as a person of color, as I as a black person is at the moment that I hear that from somebody I can see they're earnestly trying.
And so if they're trying, I'm going to want to stay in the relationship with them.
So here's what I here's here's the next step. If somebody agrees that I think they can explain to you what occurred.
You want to listen. You want to listen. And then you want to repeat back to them what it is that you're hearing them say.
If you repeat back to them what they say and you and you say, oh, I see now I overlooked your voice in the classroom and that made you feel silent.
It made you feel like you weren't worthy of being in the classroom or just where they hurt.
You made you feel really sad and disappointed in me that that's something that I did.
If the person says yes, that's exactly what would happen. What you do is you say, I'm sorry.
It's one of the things that experts don't learn how to do is to really apologize for the impact that we have on other human beings.
If, in fact, a person says, no, you didn't get it.
What you say to them is, can you help me understand? Because I really want to get this right.
And what you want to do is you want to stay with getting out and understanding till you get the understanding.
The person says, yes, you have it. It's really important to apologize for what happened.
Don't just give a blanket, a blanket apology blanket apologies. Don't get at rebuilding and repairing relationships.
So if you begin to think in terms of in our society, we say, I'm sorry all the time.
What I try to get people to understand is that you want your story to mean something.
And it only means something when it's really connected with the impact that you're having on the other person when you are not aging.
The impact that drives the other person if you just use it. And it's not connected to understanding how you affected another person.
It's actually a very cheap. Sorry. Right after you get to the place of being able to apologize, you apologize.
And actually what I'm learning is, is that we should also say to that person, thank you for trusting me with this.
Thank you for bringing me your feelings. I know that that probably wasn't easy.
And then you move on. You move on in the conversation. You don't necessarily need to linger and talk about what your intent was.
You don't need to linger and really profusely overly apologize.
You need to move on. Now, the person who has been offended may ask you help me understand what you were intending to happen in that moment.
Be perfect. Right. But understand that your need to explain your intent is really for you.
If you if that's where you want to lead with, unless the person ask you about your intent, then it's actually for the relationship.
Right. So then you get to you get to explaining what the intent was.
After you move on,
what you then have to do is commit to educating yourself and changing your behavior and trying to ensure that you don't repeat the same mistakes.
Right. You want to make mistakes when you're doing this work, but you don't want to make the same mistakes when you're doing this work.
Often say to people that diversity, inclusion work is actually about what happens when I make a mistake.
Right. What happens? How do y arrive at a new understanding? How do I arrive at changed behavior as a result of this mistake that I've made
knowing facts about groups assembling a diverse group of people in a room,
counting the numbers. Those things can be seen as part of diversity, inclusion, work.
But inclusion happens when we say to people, your heart matters and I'm going to do what needs to be done in order to be able to
recover from being somebody who was harmful to you and repair the relationship with you.
And I think that's such an extraordinary point,
especially when you highlighted our opportunity as faculty members to say thank you for trusting me with that.
That must have been difficult because I think we often forget how much power we have in the ground.
I could continue to talk to you for hours and hours and ask questions and estimate your expertize.
But thank you so much for taking this time to talk with us today. I know I have benefited from it.
I know that our faculty will benefit from it. And anybody else who gets to hear from you and your your work.
So thank you. Thank you, Doireann, for having me. I really appreciate this opportunity.