The Technique
In my social foundations of education courses, I look for ways to convey the diverse and often challenging realities experienced by elementary school students. One thing I have found to be effective is inviting students to share their own experiences – stories that are authentic, relatable, and typically very engaging. This approach can also be complicated.
It can be intimidating for some students to share their personal (and sometimes traumatizing) histories, especially “on the spot” in front of a large class or to a sea of Zoom faces. As an instructor, I would also prefer to avoid making assumptions about which stories students will want to share based on perceived identities. I’ve also found that students can feel pressure to speak for entire social groups and/or to topics they don’t necessarily know a lot about.
To account for these factors, I use a technique that engages students in pre-recorded, thematic, student-panel discussions. During Covid, I experimented with this technique over Zoom, largely as a way to promote deeper connections among students in an online, synchronous environment. I asked myself, “What if a small group of students were provided with a safe space to tell stories relating to the course themes on a pre-recorded panel?” In the resulting technique, I invited selected students to share their educational experiences, grouped the willing respondents into panels, and then organized a virtual conversation that I recorded for the whole class to view.
When small groups of students come together for a group panel, there is an opportunity to promote connections, solidarity, and more nuanced narratives within the thematic group – and then, by extension, to the whole class. Using this technique, I have found that many of my students have appreciated having a chance to share their experiences so that their peers who are future teachers will have a better understanding of the variety of students’ lived realities.
Even though we have moved back to in-person classes on campus, I expect to continue with this technique on campus because this technique puts control of the storytelling in the students’ hands
How I Use It
The student panel discussion videos are created, recorded, and then used for teaching and learning in three stages:
Creating the Panels
- I send all my students a pre-course questionnaire as a standard practice. In this, I ask them the following questions:
- Tell us about your elementary school experiences.
- What is like to immigrate to Canada, learn English as a second language, experience ethnic discrimination, etc., in school/education?
- How do you connect this with the theory and concepts you have learned?
- What would you suggest for future teachers of diverse student groups?
- And, most importantly, would you be willing/interested in sharing aspects of your identity that have shaped your life and/or the experiences you have shared here?
- Once I receive the survey results, I see if I can create group