Live Teaching an Attempted Coup

Fair and Factual: How to Navigate Important Political Discussions with Students by Charlotte West
KQED, February 2, 2021

As the events of January 6th reverberated across the country, many teachersfound themselves confronted with the task of helping students understand what had just unfolded. Resources from Facing History, PBS, Learning for Justice, and The New York Times Learning Network appeared quickly, helping teachers work with students to unpack history as it happened. The events once again highlighted issues of teacher neutrality and how to approach contentious political developments in the classroom. “Just another day live teaching an attempted coup from my dining room,” wrote AP Government teacher Joel Snyder, highlighting the further complexity of meeting this moment via remote schooling. Writing about a month after the event for KQED, Charlotte West uses teachers’ responses to the riots to reflect on larger issues of neutrality and truth-telling in the classroom. Noting that “it’s impossible to remove politics from the classroom because teaching itself is a political act,” West offers some useful strategies and reflections for teachers looking to lean into the discomfort of tackling controversial political topics. She highlights the research of Wayne Journell, whose findings show that “students don't care where their teachers stand politically as long as they feel like they aren’t being pressured to think a certain way” and even offers support for the view that “teachers disclosing their beliefs can help students learn to think critically.” As teachers and schools attempt to help students process the current moment while setting them up to become fully empowered democratic citizens in the future, approaches that center critical thinking, fact-finding, and honesty become even more necessary.Fair and Factual: How to Navigate Important Political Discussions with Students by Charlotte West
KQED, February 2, 2021