Creating Kinder Classrooms: Addressing Microaggressions And Supporting Students

Event Date & Time

Event Description

Microaggressions are brief and subtle actions, remarks, or visual cues in our everyday interactions that communicate negative ideas about a group of people, usually a socially marginalized group (Sue et al., 2007). Each act of microaggression may seem minor and unintentional, but the constant, cumulative, and corrosive nature of microaggressions has a negative impact on students’ ability to learn.  

With Justice (2017), this session frames addressing microaggressions in the classroom as a work towards creating a kinder classroom, and argues that it is not about “coddling” students but about supporting their dignity and wellbeing so they can thrive to their full potential.  

The session shares a framework that you can use to respond to microaggressions in the classroom and invites you to discuss more strategies for, and challenges in, creating a kinder classroom.

Facilitators:

• Daniel Heath Justice – Acting Director of the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and Expressive Culture
• Hanae Tsukada – Educational Consultant, the Student Diversity Initiative/the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology