Apparent classroom neutrality can feel unsafe to students of color

Evidence

Many professors have conveyed to me their feeling that the classroom should be a “safe” place; that usually translates to mean that the professor lectures to a group of quiet students who respond only when they are called on. The experience of professors who educate for critical consciousness indicates that many students, especially students of color, may not feel at all “safe” in what appears to be a neutral setting. It is the absence of a feeling of safety that often promotes prolonged silence or lack of student engagement. — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 86

Categorization

• CANDY: A crisp, counterintuitive reversal anyone can quote: the ‘safe’ silent classroom is precisely where marginalized students feel least safe.
• XREF: connects to: Asking the lone minority student to explain ethnic texts burden them unfairly — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 92; Community, not safety, is the right frame for radical classroom learning — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 88; Counterstory pedagogy must preserve intra-communal diversity to avoid flattening perspectives. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 490 (+4 more)