'Would anyone like to share?' And the burden of experiential knowledge in academia

My partner is currently in university, and I may or may not have been eavesdropping on one of his classes, as it is of course, taking place online. His non-Black professor was talking about anti-Black racism in the class. After sharing a video with the class, the professor asked if there were any Black students that wanted to share something, either a personal experience or just their thoughts on the video. 

The professor goes on to “humbly” say that if there are any Black students in the class, they could provide far more richness to the conversation than she could. 

Since this class was taking place online, students of course had a little more race anonymity, which is nice. Nonetheless, this situation gave me flashbacks to being the only Black student in a classroom, having something being said about racism, and having everyone in the class looking over at me to either peep my reaction or have me ‘fact check’ what was being said. 

My first thought, which swiftly turned into a tweet was this:

“Black students, I hope you never ever ever feel like you have to air your trauma or spend your hard-earned energy in order to validate your white prof's curriculum. Repeat after me: that is not my job.”

This sparked some conversation about the balancing act that is creating a safe sharing culture in the classroom while not pressuring students to air their trauma for educational purposes.

Recalling my days as a student, having a professor lean on me to educate them or the class always felt like a bit of a trap. 

When the prof asks “does anyone want to speak to this?” And you’re one of two Black students in the room (if you’re lucky; in most cases, I was the only one), all eyes are on you, and the pressure is astronomical.

In those moments, I would feel as though I had very few options.

This is of course made worse by the fact that university is so damn expensive. So I’m also thinking “are you ACTUALLY trying to get me to educate y'all when I’m the one paying to attend this dump?” But that’s just my inner dialogue, and it can get a little nasty in there.

The point is, we all know that educating people on issues that carry deep and personal significance requires a lot of energy, so there’s got to be a more consensual way to invite students to share their point of view than putting them on the spot like that.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re educating a class on something that directly impacts a certain community, anyone from that community should absolutely have the space to share if they want to. But there’s an appropriate way to do it. 

Asking “does anyone with personal experience want to share?” and then following that up with “you’d actually be helping me out, as I can’t speak to this situation as much as you can” is just not it. You are putting the burden of education unto a student disguised as an “opportunity to share.” You are putting a student on the spot in an environment that has most likely not been optimized for their safety.

Just because you’re ready, doesn’t mean your environment is

Yanqiu Rachel Zhou, Della Knoke, and Izumi Sakamoto conducted a study through the University of Toronto. This study looked at peer knowledge-sharing in the classroom, and more specifically the participation of Chinese students in classroom sharing.

While their work didn’t observe any Black students, there are so many valuable takeaways from this research, one of them being that knowledge is complex. Just because a professor may feel ready to foster an inclusive environment rich with the sharing of diverse experiences, doesn’t mean that the proper framework is set up for that.

“Diversity in knowledge and ways of thinking are as integral to inclusive education as diversity in gender, race, or other dimensions of experience. Therefore, developing a broader conceptual and practical framework of inclusive education and increasing the diversity of content presented in the class requires that the complexity of elements that impact knowledge sharing (including indigenous knowledge sharing) be taken into account...” 

The study goes on to suggest that the attempt to promote diversity in knowledge-sharing without the proper groundwork may be the very thing that further alienates marginalized students. The authors say that the classroom environment itself, along with the power dynamics that exist within it, compromise the “pursuit of diversity in the classroom.”

The authors refer to another piece of work about inclusive education by Y. Leeman and M. Volman. In this paper, Leeman and Volman state that the framework for inclusive education isn’t nearly as robust as it needs to be.

“...the complexities of knowledge sharing in class and the unequal power embedded in different knowledge and cultures have been rarely taken into account by the current framework of ‘inclusive education’ ”

Creating a safe space

In Zhou, Knoke, and Sakamoto’s study, it was made clear that both students and professors need to co-construct a different framework for embracing diverse forms of knowledge (including experiential knowledge) in the classroom setting. Students who participated in the study said they felt safe to share in class when they experienced

  • Support, openness, and willingness to learn from other students

  • Encouragement, support, and facilitation from the professor

  • Personal familiarity with the students and professors

None of those things are surprising, and I’m sure they’re all things that professors are already trying to make a reality. But one thing that was quoted in the study (which I was surprised did not receive more attention) was one of the students saying, “I just feel like it is more comfortable to talk to a group that [has] common experiences.”

The paper kind of blew past this comment, and I’m not sure why, because for me, that is 100% the missing piece when it comes to sharing experiential knowledge in academia.

When you’re sharing among people who do not have the same experiences, not only is the burden of education resting on your shoulders, but you’re also risking being misunderstood and re-traumatized.

As a student, if I am listening to my professor speak about a sensitive subject on which they have no personal experience, I want to hear from a guest speaker who does have that experience. This way, if I am asked to share, I don’t feel like it’s my job to add value. Suddenly, I’m not the only one in the room who knows what they’re talking about, so if I do choose to share, I have adequate support in terms of knowledge-sharing and education. 

Academia is a hard place to be for Black people, even with the most earnest professors. I’ve never had a Black professor, and I think that’s unfortunately the case for most Black people who attend university in Alberta. 

I believe that a lot of well-meaning professors are mindful of creating an encouraging, open, and safe sharing environment. However, I do think there needs to be an extra step. I think professors need to bring in guests who have an intimate understanding of the sensitive subject matter at hand in order to remove the burden of education from the students. 

As a professor, you may feel that you’re ready to foster inclusivity and embrace experiential knowledge in an academic setting, but that doesn’t mean you can’t cause harm.

References:

Rethinking silence in the classroom: Chinese students’ experiences of sharing indigenous knowledge