Conflicts as Sites of Learning
Monday October 28, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Room 9206

Do you occasionally find yourself avoiding conflicts in the classroom? Do you wonder why conflicts emerge, and how educators can de-escalate?

CUNY classrooms include students with many perspectives, voices, and experiences. Conflict is bound to arise. Although conflict is often understood as a clash between opposing ideas, it may be defined and felt in many different ways. The agonistic (coming from the Greek word agon, or “struggle”) model of democracy proposes that consensus without exclusion is not possible, and thus recognizes and legitimizes conflict as an essential part of radical democracy. Classrooms are sometimes thought of as a space of reason and intellectual consensus. Avoiding confrontation is a common practice. The classroom, however, can be a space to embrace emotion, passion, and difference. It’s possible for college teachers to not only challenge existing (often negative) meanings of the conflict, but also to construct new understandings of the term that facilitate productive dialogue in the classroom.

Join the Teaching and Learning Center on October 28 at 4:30 pm to explore how we can learn through conflict, and how role-play might help to resolve it when it arises. We will discuss how educators can encourage students to bring their passions and emotions into the classroom discussions, mediate disagreements, and limit the impact of antagonism. Workshop participants will leave with resources on how to engage conflicts in the classroom as a pedagogical tool.

*Note that this workshop we will ask participants to engage in physical activity. Please let us know if you have any access needs. You may RSVP for this workshop at http://cuny.is/tlc-registration.