How to keep talking when the stakes are high

“While campus protests and threats to academic freedom dominate the headlines, in the classroom these issues play out in different ways. Creating an environment for open dialogue in higher education has never been more challenging – or more essential. Over the years, HE Blog contributors have grappled with these issues and shared their reflections. These five posts explore how educators create space for difficult conversations and conflicting perspectives in polarised classrooms When self-censorship stifles classroom debate A spiral of silence can inhibit diverse viewpoints even in diverse classrooms, argues Chen-Ta Sung How to talk to a populist With populism now part of the political landscape, educators need to understand how to respond when populist discourse finds its way into the classroom. Edda Sant debunks three common myths about populist challenges to higher education Conflict in the classroom: teaching about Ukraine A year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we asked academics from different disciplines and backgrounds to share how they are addressing this conflict with students in classrooms in universities across the world. The limits of liberating tolerance In interdisciplinary classrooms, creating space for diverse perspectives may be more valuable than challenging dominant ones, argues Moé Suzuki Universities must make space for critical conversations Teresa Piacentini argues that the classroom is always political and, despite student calls for ‘less bias’, should never be free of discomfort. To read more posts on academic freedom and open dialogue in the classroom, please explore our Academic Freedom , Leadership and Pedagogy to Practice categories. Image: Marcos Luiz on Unsplash This post is opinion-based and does not reflect the views of the London School of Economics and Political Science or any of its constituent departments and divisions. The post How to keep talking when the stakes are high first appeared on LSE Higher Education .

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