Creating a Safer Environment

Acknowledge Violence without Telling the Detailed Stories

I came into the VALTA Project with a fundamental belief in the value of acknowledging violence—without telling detailed stories of violence—as part of creating a safer learning environment. By acknowledging that many people in educational settings (facilitators as well as students) have experienced violence and that such experiences will affect learning, there can be a possibility of greater presence and more integrated learning. The fear that violence will be spoken of in detail can lead to closing down, absence, terror, or a choice not to participate at all. Recognizing the presence of violence and its impact on learning breaks silences, which are often long held. It also creates the possibility of moving from the slippery and dangerous territory of self-blame, shame and embarrassment about educational failure toward ground from which to begin reflecting about the self, learning from violence, opening up to the possibilities of change, and participating successfully in desired learning.

As discussed in the first chapter, Judy, Mary and I were clear throughout the VALTA Project that it is crucial to keep the goal of supporting learning central at all times, to address issues of violence in ways that make it more possible to focus on successful learning, and to avoid sliding into therapy or into detailing experiences of violence in the classroom. We continued to explore ways to create a balance between telling and not telling about violence, and about what that might look like in the VALTA course and workshops as well as in literacy programs. Our desire was to create a safer learning environment where there was no pressure to hide anything, but where relaxing into learning was possible.

Before the Project started, we encouraged participants to think about counseling or other resources to support them if they needed to speak fully about their own experiences, or about the impact of course material. We normalized the possibility of needing support as nothing to be ashamed of and as something to be considered ahead of time and prepared for. We wanted to give the message that there is no shame in having experienced violence or in finding that the powerful feelings of the experience return, even when one thinks it has been thoroughly addressed. We were influenced by Tanya Lewis' (1999) theorizing which challenges the idea that we can never "get over" violence and "leave it behind" and instead suggests that we work to "live beside" our past experiences, knowing there is always the possibility that a current experience may easily slip us back inside difficult memories. As facilitators, we wanted to model the idea that it is important to find a place to tell where one can be heard supportively rather than silenced, closed down, or not truly heard because those listening close down and are unable to listen well.