The world is subjective. How we react in different situations is individual to us and based on our own lived experiences. As we open up our classrooms to be more inclusive, and talk more openly about discrimination and what this means to individuals, how do we foster a sense of safety and ownership without accidentally ‘othering’ and alienating pupils? How do we ‘hold a space’ for pupils with different experiences to share and build empathy?

Preparing Students to Challenge Themselves

Researcher Parinita Shetty hosts a podcast for fans of fantasy media such as books and films. She purposefully creates space for guests with a range of identities within her discussions. In the video below, Parinita talks about challenging herself to become comfortable feeling uncomfortable, and opening herself to learning from the guests on her podcast.

This helps to set the scene for discussions – giving pupils ‘permission’ to be unsure and uncomfortable, within a positive environment of wanting to learn from people with different experiences and perspectives.

Teachers as Moderators

As educators, we also have lived experiences that shape our world view, so we may not find talking about sensitive topics a comfortable process. It shouldn’t be triggering, but it might feel uncomfortable.

Sometimes students’ opinions, or the language used in expressing themselves will need to be challenged. If appropriate, this can be done by referring back to the class rules that were created at the beginning (see ‘starter activity’ under ‘Activity Ideas’ in Teachers' Notes). 

In other cases, the belief or viewpoint of the student will need to be directly challenged. How this is done will require careful consideration and a good knowledge of each individual pupil. Sometimes a quiet one-to-one with the pupil might be the best way forward, sometimes it will need respectful discussion as a class, as long as everyone involved is still adhering to the class rules. It may be worth thinking through in advance how to deal with any students who repeatedly break the class rules or refuse to engage in a respectful way.

The downloadable Sentence Starters can be used to help students engage in discussion in respectful ways, and also used as a ‘checklist’ – encourage each student to use one sentence starter from each section during the course of the lesson for example.

Discussing Stereotypes

This can be a very sensitive subject to discuss in a classroom situation. Your approach will depend on the needs, challenges and openness of your pupils. There are many different approaches. You could start with discussing stereotypes and stereotyping more broadly and then begin to talk about othering. Or, if pupils are more confident at sharing already, talk about how pupils identify themselves as part of a discussion.

Activity Suggestion: Pen Portraits

This activity is designed to help students to start thinking about and reflecting on our human tendency to have preconceptions of people, and how these preconceptions, if not challenged, can lead us to stereotyping and othering behaviour.

Representation of Marginalised People in Mainstream Media

In the excerpt below, Parinita Shetty discusses how our ‘othering’ of people different from ourselves, or the perceived societal ‘norm’ can lead to people who do not fit this ‘norm’ becoming marginalised. She also discusses how her guests helped her understand the pressure that can then be put on people who are marginalised to constantly define themselves to the people around them.

In the clip below Parinita also discusses how one of her guests pointed out how mainstream media routinely ignores, or even purposefully removes, people with mental and / or physical disabilities from their narratives.

Discussion Ideas:

• Look at different examples of mainstream media, such as TV programmes and ask students to critique the inclusion (or lack of) of characters who do not conform to the ‘default social norm’ identified in the excerpt above from Parinita.
  - Examples to compare and critique could include ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, ‘Emmerdale’ and a variety of Hollywood films.
  Pupils could collate media examples that they feel are either particularly good at inclusion, or those that lack diversity. This will help them to engage with the subject more as they will be using examples that ‘speak to them’.
• How can we help expand our understanding of people’s different experiences without contributing to the pressure felt by some people from marginalised groups?
  - There is not necessarily a ‘correct’ answer for this, but through discussion students can become aware of the potential for this to happen, and therefore be mindful in their conversations.
  - It is also an opportunity to reinforce that everybody is an individual, with individual experiences, and just because they may have shared characteristics with a defined group, that does not mean that they speak for the whole group.