Working towards diversity is one of Wooster’s biggest goals. Working towards coexistence while enhancing diversity is also one of Wooster’s biggest, but hardest, goals. The College of Wooster prides itself on creating spaces on campus and in the classroom that foster discussions among its diverse population, not just to further students’ understanding on different issues, but also to challenge students’ perspectives, especially when it comes to social justice and human rights. We often refer to these spaces as “safe spaces,” and have been putting efforts into creating more such spaces on campus as social justice dialogues take place more often with the impacts of current events.
It is necessary to deconstruct the term “safe space” in the context of education. Safe space is defined by the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation as “an environment in which everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves and participating fully, without fear of attack, ridicule or denial of experience.” As previously mentioned, safe spaces are referred to in both academic and social contexts as spaces where social justice dialogues can take place.
Nevertheless, discussions in safe spaces are often circulated with animosity among a specific population (e.g. liberals, leftists) whose members already share mutual beliefs and perspectives. This ensures that safety within these conversations exist. However, how can we expect to authentically learn about social justice with mere safety, when the nature of these dialogues is hard, controversial and uncomfortable?
In order for us to deepen and broaden our understanding of these issues, we need to take risks: getting out of our comfort zones, having our power and privileges challenged — which are not attainable when we are with people who already agree with us. For social justice discussions to be fruitful, truthful and effective, we should not expect to be safe — we should expect ourselves and one another to be brave.
Brave spaces provide us with a platform to have authentic dialogues about social issues, as we intentionally push ourselves to be vulnerable with one another and offer social justice learning through lived experiences as well as respectful discourses. Entering brave spaces, we are expected to be challenged, to be uncomfortable and open to controversy — while remaining civil to one another. For brave spaces to exist, there needs to be intentionality as well as ground rules for both facilitators and participants. Common ground rules used in brave spaces include, but are not limited to: agree to disagree, respect, don’t take things personally and challenge by choice. For facilitators, it is important to remain objective and create room for participants to engage in civilized discourse.
However, the goal of brave spaces is not necessarily for us to convince one another to change our perspectives, but to convince one another that we can work and live together despite our differences — the true value of a diverse community.
I believe classrooms should strive to become brave spaces to fully serve the purpose of a liberal arts education: enhancing diversity, not just in demographics but also in perspective. Professors should remain objective and unbiased. Students need to learn to have difficult conversations where they disagree with others in a respectful way. It is only through creating brave spaces for one another that we can push each other to learn about social justice effectively through the lens of our shared humanity.
Vy Vu, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at VVu18@wooster.edu.