Working Through the Trauma of Sexual Assault in an Undergraduate Class

Boehmer, Cathryn M.; Misch, Donald A.

doi:10.1080/02703149.2011.581580

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Paper or project guidelines can be set up to require reflection on the empirical materials and to prompt the student to make connections between the personal and the political. An excellent example of such a paper written by an undergraduate is given in Boehmer and Misch (2011).…”

Section: Type 3: Low Personal/high Community Awarenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caring for Our Students in Courses With Potentially Threatening Content

Barlow

Becker‐Blease

2012

Psychology of Women Quarterly

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We enjoy the challenge of teaching classes on gender and violence, including violence against women, psychology of trauma, and psychology of gender. Although various sources provide suggestions for teaching classes that provoke strong reactions in students (McCammon, 1995), we have found that one size does not fit all. Rather, we must first identify the needs and motivations of individual students, as well as the class dynamics that arise when students with different levels of trauma awareness begin interacting with each other and with us. We present here a typology of students' awareness drawn from our experience with classes on gender and violence. This typology may also apply to classes on racism and other challenging topics.Often in our classes, we ask students to confront their own privilege and expectations and to reflect on how their personal experiences may be connected to larger issues in society. Challenging assumptions, although necessary, is often a stressful activity. Here we focus on undergraduate classes that are taken by a wide variety of students, most of whom do not plan to become counselors. We have found that most of the content in this article applies to classes of anywhere from 12 to 100 students, with some modifications needed for classes of over 40.In classes on gender and violence, students must manage their intellectual and emotional reactions to these topics. For example, learning about the prevalence of violence against women may lead students to feel sad or angry, betrayed by society, shocked at their ignorance, or to have pity for victims (Jones, 2002). Confusion and frustration at being unable to change the world can lead to a state of shock, or even to discounting others' experience. Instructors also experience these reactions. It can be disheartening to hear students react in ways that discount violence survivors' experiences, support rape myths, and describe one's own traumatic experiences.Students' and instructors' personal reactions contribute to classroom dynamics that emerge during the course. Instructors may struggle with their own philosophies about the goals of the course and how often self-disclosure or personal reactions are appropriate, given the stated course goals (Newman, 2011). Because we are not clinicians, our goal is not to run a group therapy session but rather a college class based on the science of psychology. On the other hand, as feminists, we

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Section: Type 3: Low Personal/high Community Awarenessmentioning

confidence: 99%