Engaging in discussions on challenging or sensitive topics can promote deeper knowledge and critical thinking. This can also evoke strong emotions and cause stress or anxiety in students. Here we discuss potential challenging topics and your responsibilities and limitations.
Navigating challenging topics in the university classroom requires a balance between fostering academic discourse and prioritising student mental wellbeing. Throughout their study, students will be required to engage with topics, ideas and concepts that may be challenging for them.
Academic discomfort versus student distress
Academic discomfort and student distress are distinct concepts.
Academic discomfort refers to the intellectual challenge students experience when they engage with new, complex, or controversial ideas. As part of the learning process, you can use academic discomfort to push students to question their assumptions, engage in critical thinking, and expand their understanding.
Student distress involves emotional or psychological strain that can hinder a student’s ability to learn effectively. This could be triggered by personal circumstances, by classroom content, or by other factors. Student distress can be detrimental to learning and needs to be addressed with sensitivity and support.
Challenging, contentious, and triggering topics
There are many topics that individual students may find challenging to discuss or that may be distressing for them. Here are some examples of topics that may be challenging for your students.
Your responsibilities and limitations
ANU academic and professional staff are not expected to, nor should they, provide therapeutic or clinical services to students, except where they are employed for that specific purpose.
Your responsibilities are to support student wellbeing in accordance with ANU policy, and in particular the Policy: Support for Students and Policy: Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech.
It is important to be proactive about managing sensitive disclosures, such as encouraging students to be mindful about sharing distressing personal experiences in a space where you cannot guarantee confidentiality and supporting students to consider carefully where and to whom they disclose.