What Do You Bring to The Classroom? – A Look at Approaching Difficult Dialogues

This qualitative research study assessed and evaluated experiences of professors from different departments, regarding their encounters with difficult dialogues and the perceived response from students in their classroom through untimed, semi-structured interviews. The interview questions were designed to have an open dialogue with the professor about their experiences in the classroom and how they feel their identities and strategies may have influenced or shaped conversations that took place. The findings include the perspective of four white female professors, one white male professor, and one female professor of color. The results emphasize that there are effective strategies that professors have found useful and helpful to have candid and constructive conversations about taboo topic areas in the classroom, and that these conversations will continue to grow at PWI’s when more diversity is embedded into the campus culture