Dialogue and the Democratic Classroom

In Fall 2023, Associate Professor of Government Emy Matesan was looking forward to teaching her Comparative Politics in the Middle East course that spring. But within weeks, the Oct. 7 terrorist attack occurred in Israel, and seemingly overnight, the topic became a third rail. The prospect of having normal conversations seemed impossible but particularly in a class about contentious topics, she recalled.

“It really felt like a turning point,” said Matesan. “How am I going to talk about Israel and Palestine in my class? How can we talk about it in a way where we respect each other and value each other and care for each other, and can have conversations that isolate us from the rhetoric?”

Over the winter break, she continued to wrestle with that challenge. When time came for the class to start in January 2024, she decided to take the temperature in the room of 19 students. On the first day of class, Matesan asked her students what they were nervous about and what they were excited to learn. “Everybody said that they're really nervous to talk about what's going on right now in Israel and in Palestine,” she recalled. “So then I said, ‘Okay, we can't avoid it. So how are we actually going to do this? Let's all sit down and kind of create this community right now and create guidelines.’”

To develop guidelines for discussing controversial topics, Matesan divided the students into small groups of three or four and asked them to come up with their own rules for promoting a safe space for learning. After 10 minutes, the groups reported their ideas, which she wrote on the board. Matesan then noted areas of agreement and disagreement, and the class went on to talk about how they would resolve arguments and address thorny issues like discomfort.

That process, which Matesan outlined in her paper, “Empowering Students to Have Difficult Conversations,” set the stage for the semester. Unlike colleagues at other institutions who were still struggling or avoided the topic altogether, Matesan recalls having a positive and powerful experience in her class. As she stated in the paper, published in the journal Political Science & Politics, “I had never witnessed such honesty and raw emotions in previous classes.”

Rules for Engagement

How did the class tackle tough topics and maintain a civil space for learning? They agreed on rules for their conversations, such as respecting one another’s backgrounds, avoiding assumptions, asking questions to understand, and keeping an open mind. They also decided they would ground any disagreements in the readings and in facts.

The rule-setting exercise Matesan applied in the class is based on three principles she applies in all classes: trust, empowerment, and empathy. She combined those principles with a mix of pedagogical strategies—daily discussion questions, simulations, small-group exercises—to build a democratic classroom.

With those guidelines set, they still had some issues to work out, such as handling silences. “[Students] wanted to have the option and the choice of remaining silent on certain topics and at certain points and sitting out conversations,” said Matesan. While they decided no one should leave the room due to discomfort, which could be perceived as dismissive, they did agree to make space for silence so students could opt out of participating in discussions by signaling to Matesan.

When it came to handling disagreement, even though the students collaborated in developing the rules for debate, they still wanted Matesan to interject if discussions got heated. “They wanted me to intervene if I felt like conversations were escalating,” Matesan said. “So they wanted me, in a way, to be so-called police officer, right, instead of them policing each other.”

Ro Barrett ’26, who is majoring in Economics and Applied Data Science, took the class his sophomore year because it seemed intriguing and he wanted to be better informed about the Middle East. “My own personal interest was this class would be extraordinarily useful to have these kinds of tough conversations, but also I realized the limitation in my own knowledge,” he said.

While Barrett thinks Wesleyan students tend to be respectful in classes with or without specific guidelines, he still found Matesan’s approach promoted more participation. “It was really refreshing for me to be in a class where so many people were engaged with the material and had interesting, relevant, and really honestly important things to say because I don't think that's necessarily always the case,” he said. “That's what make these classes more interesting and more beneficial to everyone.”

Eliza Bryson ’26, who also took the class as a sophomore, had a personal stake with Palestinian family friends in the region. While they appreciated the preparation at the start of the course, they questioned the tendency to treat all opinions as having equal value. “I think that truthful understanding of the history is maybe more important,” they said.

Yet, one drawback expressed by another student in course evaluations was that in their effort to create a safe space, the class may have sacrificed some diversity of opinion. While Matesan would try to play devil’s advocate to challenge students, she believed it was also important to find a balance. “Just being able to have a normal conversation that is informed by the academic readings we're doing, that is civil, that is productive, that is kind of leading to an important and interesting and nuanced conversation, that felt like a victory,” she said.

Pedagogy of Hope

In a related paper, published in the Journal of Political Science Education, Matesan explored the concept of hope. After noticing that students in all her classes were exhibiting signs of being overwhelmed by events in the news, she wanted to delve into research on how to use pedagogy to foster a greater sense of agency.

Drawing on her own experience in the classroom, as well as psychological research and climate change education, Matesan developed eight principles designed to foster hope. “Even if [students] may feel very disillusioned about events, I think that fundamentally you can instill a semblance of hope in them if you try to empower them in other ways in the classroom,” she said. “And that can be empowering them to talk, empowering them to express their opinion, empowering them to create their own guidelines for conversations, helping them feel heard and seen in the classroom.”

The framework she proposed encompasses multiple aspects of teaching, from course design to classroom activities. This includes developing inclusive syllabi with a clear arc; incorporating theories of agency, successful case studies, and stories of human resilience; and developing practices that empower students and help them envision alternatives and solutions.

While practicing hope in the classroom may not guarantee that students engage politically, Matesan wants these principles to at least counter the growing sense of despair about the state of the world. Whether students ultimately get involved in civil society or their community, “I would still want them to have that sense that their agency matters and their voice matters,” said Matesan.