The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

Dialogue about these questions: How can we teach better during COVID? What does it mean to be mindful of our students’ burdens, aware of the trauma our students are carrying - so that their trouble does not impede their learning? What approaches and practices of teaching might lower student anxieties so that they might learn? What assignments can we design that will have a generative impact upon the students’ churches, neighborhoods, families, and communities? To what places beyond our secluded campuses can we send students to explore in order to expand their learning? In what ways might honesty about our own identities inspire our students? What contemplatives spiritualities re-ignite and foster our passions for teaching – even during the viral pandemic? 

Given the continued effects of the viral pandemic, compounded by weather disasters, world news of crisis and devastation, rising incidents of racism, plus any troubles unique to your own family, etc. – THIS IS A COMMUNAL MOMENT OF LONG-TERM STRESS. Teachers must ask, in the midst, how are we showing up? We know everyone is not equally affected by this moment, everyone is not participating in the same reality, and yet we know all of us are strained, taxed, and stressed.  Uncertainty fatigue is pervasive. This conversation helps know how to check-in with self, students and colleagues. We discuss the difference between submission and surrender for the health of self and community. We discuss ways of coping with despair, suffering, how to be together in sorrow, grief, and practices of spirituality which will hold us during this extended chaos. 

The barage of sustained crisis is weighing heavily.   Even while enduring crisis, moments of clarity about issues of vocation, identity, and spiritual awareness are possible. What are questions of discernment which comfort, guide, and stabilize us during this time of flux.  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Su Yon Pak, Senior Director and Associate Professor of Integrative & Field Based Education at Union Theological Seminary.

The initial shock of the pandemic crisis is over - the prolonged crisis keeps unfolding. Our up-ended lives are riddled with fear, grief and uncertainty. What does it mean to cope with the experience of “working twice as hard to get half as much done?”  This is a conversation with Mindy McGarrah Sharp (Columbia Theological Seminary) about coping in these moments.

What kinds of preparedness is there for events like mass shooting or a devastating storm? What does it mean to teach immediately after these events? What happens when these events occur in your school or immediate community or in your classroom? How does one teach when there is a national interruption? What is a trauma informed classroom? 

What is trauma and how does trauma affect body, mind, and spirit? Are there different kinds of trauma? Since classrooms are spaces of human interactions, understanding how fear and woundedness affects the teacher and the learner is critical to effective teaching. What classroom practices might lessen the experience of fear, helplessness, voicelessness, and being overwhelmed? 

How are you? The response to this question can be weighty during the COVID 19 pandemic. What we teach can be disturbing. What adjustments in our syllabi and teaching practices might aid in care? What could go wrong while attending to the needs of students? Why are classrooms never to be spaces of therapy? 

Informed definitions of trauma are needed. Classrooms are never spaces for therapy. Ways of developing trauma awareness, self-care strategies and referrals. Creating spaces of respect, regard and care are needed for faculty, administration, and students. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Lisa Cataldo (Fordham University).

What will it take to teach toward racial justice and away from white supremacy?  Thinking about ways to incorporate minoritized voices into the entire curriculum.  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Jill Crainshaw (Wake Forest University Divinity School). 

What is white rage? What does it mean that racism so permeates school ecologies that white rage is not noticed by anyone other than its victims? What is the loss to the institution for white rage? How can white rage be counterbalanced? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Melanie Harris (Texas Christian University) and Dr. Jennifer Harvey (Drake University).