Last year, I had the opportunity to participate in a multi-day workshop on intergroup communication using the model developed at the University of Michigan [CHECK THE DETAILS ON THIS]. It was an incredibly impactful experience, but one thing that really stood out to me coming off a challenging semester of teaching was our discussion early on about needing to inhabit a brave space.
I want my classroom to be a place where my students feel safe, but this reminded me that a goal of developing a safe space (or safer space) may not be what I should focus on. A safe space, after all, can be thought of as a comfort zone. A brave space, on the other hand, represents a zone of growth and learning. It’s often when we embrace discomfort that we are in the best position to grow, change, and learn.
During the fall 2023 semester, I made a concerted effort early on to talk about the need to create a welcoming environment in our class and that this was something we all had to work at – it wasn’t something I, as the instructor, could guarantee. I also, however, talked a lot about stepping out of our individual comfort zones, taking risks, and trying to inhabit a brave space where we could each learn and grow with the support of the others in the class. Since I was doing this in a class I’d never before taught and we’d just added to our major, Cultural Psychology, I had plenty of my own examples of trying to step into a brave space with the class to share with students.
Throughout the semester, I’ve made repeated call backs to this as we’ve moved into covering particularly challenging materials and engaged in some in-class activities and discussions. I’ve also provided opportunities for students to reflect on this with end-of-class check-ins as well as through their period reflection papers connected to specific aspects of class content
Of course, it’s also important to try to have some boundaries up to keep people from entering the danger zone where they shut down and aren’t capable of really working with the material and learning. Unfortunately, that place where brave transitions to danger is different for different people, so you may need to do some work helping students build intrapersonal skills so they can navigate this. But that’s a topic for a future post….
I’ve had the privilege of talking about brave spaces in small, in-person classes, but this is relevant for classes of all sizes and formats. If you teach online or in larger classes, please use the comments to share your experiences with encouraging the embracing of a brave space in your courses!
If you’re wanting to read more about this, here are a few sources you can look into:
Arao, B., & Clemens, K. (2013). From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice. In L. Landreman (Ed.), The art of effective facilitation: Reflections from social justice educators (pp. 135-150). Stylus Publishing.
Ali., D. (2017, October). Safe spaces and brave spaces: Historical context and recommendations for student affairs professionals. NASPA Policy and Practice Series.