Teaching Sensitive Issues: Feminist Pedagogy and the Practice of Advocacy-Based Counseling

by Alesha Durfee and Karen Rosenberg

It is not that some students bring their private troubles into the classroom; rather, teachers of sociology bring into the classroom some topics that resonate with their students' lives.
— Konradi 16

In our experience, most instructors have dealt with a student "crisis" in some form. When a paper is late, an assignment incomplete, an exam missed, or a lecture skipped, students seeking special accommodations from instructors frequently share (often unsolicited) intimate details about their personal lives. Sometimes the situation has been resolved; other times it is apparent that the student is still having problems. In some cases, the instructor has only clues about a student's distress—spotty attendance, changes in behavior and/or appearance, a comment made in class.