IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION B

Abstract

This presentation addresses the challenge for university teachers to improve their communication with ideologically diverse students in times of significant political polarization. It argues that one means to do so is developing and maintaining friendships and/or professional relationships with people holding differing ideological, religious, or other worldviews than oneself. The presentation begins with an overview of academic literature focused on creating non-threatening, learning-oriented environments in the classroom, even when divisive subjects are discussed (Litfin, 2020). This literature has grown with the increase in political polarization in many societies across the globe during recent decades. Disruptions to daily life, including teaching, during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as disagreements over how to address it, exacerbated the challenge (Bridges, 2021). Next, the author discusses his own experiences and learning as a left-leaning faculty member teaching in a conservative-leaning environment for 20 years. Critical to his development as an instructor of courses on sensitive topics–such as Ethnicity, Race, Gender in Media–has been maintaining friendships with more conservative friends and colleagues even as political polarization deepened in his state of residence, Texas, and the U.S. more generally. Over the past several years, two state policies governing public higher education have deepened the challenge this presentation addresses. A third section of the presentation compares the experiences and perspectives of the author, a senior faculty member, and a conservative doctoral student in his college. They began discussing this topic in early 2025 when they were in class together. The discussion here illustrates the multidimensional nature of this challenge and also some positive prospects for pedagogy. The presentation concludes by identifying best practices drawn from both existing literature and the author’s own experience.