In the coming weeks, as students return to university campuses around the country, they will be entering a landscape that has fundamentally changed. Amidst wholesale attacks on institutions of higher education, particular segments of our student body have been directly targeted by new federal policies regarding immigration as well as racial and gender diversity. These attacks will undoubtedly raise anxiety amongst students, and faculty must be prepared.
Minority students already shoulder a heavier load in the classroom. Stereotype threat is a well-documented phenomenon by which a minoritized person may feel anxious if they worry about conforming to a stereotype for their group. As the social psychologist Claude Steele writes in his book Whistling Vivaldi, “the pressure to disprove a stereotype changes what you are about in a situation. It gives you an additional task. In addition to learning new skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking in a schooling situation…you are also trying to slay a ghost in the room, the negative stereotype and its allegation about you and your group. You are multitasking, and because the stakes involved are high-survival and success versus failure in an area that is important to you—this multitasking is stressful and distracting.”
As one of the few women in my early college physics courses, I was keenly aware of this. When my professor posed a question, I would watch the same male students shoot their hands in the air with enviable speed and listen as they answered with confident swagger. It took me that same length of time to simply calm my racing mind so that I could start breaking down the question. My freshman year physics professor would often say that to understand a concept deeply, you needed to “feel it in your bones.” My bones were telling me I would not succeed as a scientist. I worried that even the best grades would not make up for the fact that I was not as quick-thinking or confident as others in the room.
Many years later, as I advise and teach undergraduates, I hear the same refrain: students just starting their physics journey talk about how they are overwhelmed by the social dynamics in their classes and feel they do not belong. This sense of not belonging can be compounded for minorities because of their gender, race, immigration status, or socioeconomic background. Some students feel this so acutely that they consider switching majors to departments that are perceived to be more welcoming.
I can imagine how much more acute this feeling will be now. How will a student who sees their identity attacked by our most powerful government officials feel as they sit down at their desk? It is undeniable that they will be bringing this additional weight along with them. Faculty will have to acknowledge that this academic year will be different and adjust accordingly.
Fortunately, simple interventions can go a long way. An extensive literature on inclusive teaching offers evidence-based strategies to increase students’ feeling of belonging in the classroom. I have experimented with a variety of recommended strategies over the years, and found several to be most effective:
– Allow students time to think through a question before soliciting responses. If I pose a problem to students, I give them some minutes to sketch out a rough solution on their own before asking for responses. To aid in this, I give each student a mini-whiteboard for drafting ideas and sharing preliminary thoughts with their neighbors.
– Wait after the first hands go up in response to a question. Yes, it can sometimes get awkward for the room to sit in silence, but the benefits are worth it as more hands go up and the discussion opens to more viewpoints. Explaining the reason for my waiting often helps to make the silence more comfortable.
– Provide options for students who prefer not to speak. For those who are simply too nervous to speak in class, I use apps that let them submit their questions and answers electronically (and anonymously, if they would like). This has the additional benefit that students can upvote other’s questions: they see that they are not the only ones confused and I can tell what the most significant hold-ups are.
It is critical to stress that none of these interventions compromises the integrity of the course or weakens its standards; they simply provide an invitation for more students to engage actively with the material and challenge themselves accordingly. They provide students with the metaphorical sword to slay the ghost in the room and get on with the business at hand.
In this period of great uncertainty in higher education, faculty may feel there are many aspects of their future, career, and livelihoods that are out of their control. Supporting our students does not have to be one of them. Especially in these days, it is no small act to show up in the classroom and tell our students, “You are all welcome here.”