According to Huston & DiPietro (2007), when responding to a stressful event, “an instructor’s response need not be complicated, time intensive, or even personalized.” Their study focused on faculty responses to collective tragedies, but their findings apply to other situations that bring up intense emotions. Students in their study often reported frustration when faculty ignored a major event and gratitude when instructors acknowledged that something impactful had occurred.
While we can hope that this Tuesday won’t bring “something awful,” we must recognize that it will likely feel even more charged than 2008 or 2016. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about how to best support my students following this year’s election.
The Center for Teaching Excellence at Boston College encourages faculty to consider several factors when planning post-election classes:
- Your comfort level: What are you comfortable discussing with students? Self-care is essential. Avoid engaging in topics that may elevate your own stress.
- Student burnout: Are students able to engage in discussion? This has been a long, complex election year. Students might not have the cognitive or emotional energy to process the results immediately.
- Connection to learning: How does this fit with the course content? For some students, discussing the election results might be more meaningful if there’s a clear link to course objectives.
- Classroom community: How might this fit within your classroom’s culture? By now, you probably have a good sense of how your students engage with one another and their comfort level in discussing sensitive topics.
If any of these factors lead you to decide against dedicating an entire class to the election results, the team at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan suggests a few smaller steps faculty can take:
- Acknowledge the situation. By openly recognizing the election, we show students that we understand its impact on them. Huston & DiPietro (2007) found that students felt more unsettled when faculty didn’t respond to significant events at all.
- Make learning adjustments. When students are stressed, their ability to learn can suffer. Consider temporarily easing your expectations. As Jin (2017) points out, external stressors can greatly hinder a student’s capacity to engage and retain new information.
- Share campus resources. Most faculty aren’t trained as therapists, as Field (2023) reminds us. Sometimes the best support we can offer is to connect students with campus resources.
This election year, I won’t be in class on Wednesday, but I’ll let students know that they’re welcome to stop by my office for coffee and a friendly conversation. I’ll also be reducing the workload for the week, to give everyone a little more space to process the results—whatever they may be.
References
- Field, K. (2023, October 24). Professors Struggle With Demands to Tend to Students’ Mental Health. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/professors-struggle-with-demands-to-tend-to-students-mental-health
- Huston, T. A., & DiPietro, M. (2007). In the Eye of the Storm: Students’ Perceptions of Helpful Faculty Actions Following a Collective Tragedy. To Improve the Academy, 25(20210331). https://doi.org/10.3998/tia.17063888.0025.017
- Jin, P. (2012) Stress and Learning. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA
- Navigating the Post-Election Period With Your Students. (2024). The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan. https://crlt.umich.edu/blog/navigating-post-election-period-your-students
- Teaching After an Election. (2024, August 8). The Center for Teaching Excellence, Boston College. https://cteresources.bc.edu/documentation/teaching-during-a-tumultuous-election-year/teaching-after-an-election/
