Abstract:

During pandemic times, the teaching practices in universities changed almost overnight. So did our teaching practice of academic development. As academic developers at a medium size higher education institution in Sweden we provide pedagogical competence development for teaching staff consisting of a wide range of courses, workshops and seminars about teaching and learning issues, supervision of students, course design, marking and assessment and also about gender equality and gender issues in teaching and learning. The focus on gender equality and gender issues is due to the Swedish government assignment to all universities to work with gender mainstreaming. This is a general strategy aimed to structure the gender equality work (Jämställdhetsmyndigheten, 2019).

The courses we provide in gender equality and gender issues are “short courses” (two half days). The aim of these courses is primarily to encourage and support the teachers to feel comfortable with discussing gender, gender bias and prejudice with students but also to do revisions in curriculum to promote gender equality. We have had these courses since 2018 on campus, in physical rooms with bodies sitting on chairs and we used to have small talk at joint coffee breaks. During the pandemic, we met our colleagues online, in their homes or in their offices and in another “layout” - a flat face in a small square is the glimpse we got of each other in the virtual learning environment. And no small talk in joint coffee breaks.

We have recognised that something happened (sic!) when we in 2020 abruptly had to change learning environment for these courses – from campus to virtual.

These courses in gender equality and gender issues for university staff are an educational (and at the same time collegial) practice aiming for transformative learning in Mezirows (e.g. 1991) sense. A kind of learning that require new perspectives, reflecting over (one’s own) values, raising awareness over prejudice and privileges and also work out ways of changing practice. It is certainly a kind of learning that involves dealing with sensitive issues.

Teaching and learning about sensitive issues, such as gender, can be an uncomfortable experience. Participants need to feel safe and secure discussing topics that affects one's own values. It is also important that teachers are objective and neutral in their appearance (Lowe, 2015). When we appear “flat” in a virtual learning environment one might think that (gendered) bodies aren´t present. But they are. So rather than thinking online learning is lacking body representation we should focus on designing courses and pedagogies that support the bodily, affective and interactive dynamics in a particular domain (e.g. Ward 2018). Some things might even be better in a virtual classroom. We have noticed that teaching sensitive issues in an online environment is more relaxed and that the flat appearance support the participants’ creativeness and freedom in discussions. Moreover, the chat function in virtual learning environments makes it easier to express things that can be sensitive to say out loud.

This session will exhibit our experience of the virtual classroom as supporting transformative learning, present examples of how teaching sensitive issues became more dynamic and fruitful in the virtual classroom and how we intend to improve from these pandemic experiences.

Keywords:

Virtual classroom, transformative learning, higher education, university teachers, sensitive issues.