creating a better learning environment

Making Learning Safer:
A Teacher's Checklist

As educators, we have the obligation to make the place where we teach and learn hospitable to our learners. This includes physical, emotional and mental safety.

As we have learned, any woman may experience societal and systemic violence. Some of our women learners have experienced such extreme violence, for instance sexual abuse, that their ability to get an education or to take advantage of one has been negatively affected.

Working together with our colleagues, we can strive to implement woman-positive programs and to create a learning environment that is welcoming and safe. We can work together to create policies that promote safe learning environments. Such an environment will ultimately benefit all students and teachers.

As individuals, we can make education more relevant and hospitable to our learners. We need to be sure we:

• seek out information about the effects of violence on women's education. This kit is a good place to start.

• respect the right of a woman learner to not share her life with us.

• respect the personal space of our learners. For example, we should not touch a learner unless invited to do so; many survivors see uninvited touching as threatening.

• refrain from slamming doors or making other loud, unexpected, noises. Because of its association with violence in her life, a survivor may react unexpectedly to loud noise; it will certainly make her feel less safe.

• critically examine the films and videos we use, trying to anticipate how survivors might react and taking appropriate steps when necessary.

• critically examine written materials for sexist, racist, able-ist, ageist or homophobic bias.

• support our learner in the choices she makes, even if they are not the ones we would have made.

• learn about the support services available in our program, in our institution, and in our community. We must also make sure our learners know about these services and help them to gain access to the services, if requested to do so.

• insist that our educational institutions and programs have a counsellor trained in dealing with survivors of sexual abuse and violence. Career counsellors seldom have this background. We must also insist that safe workers be available when we deal with particularly sensitive issues, i.e. child sexual abuse, partner abuse.

• support women learners who feel unsafe in their learning environment and help them to take back the space. Safety audits are one way to do this.

• give up some of our authority and let our learners take responsibility for some of the daily decisions.

• create a non-hierarchial learning environment as much as possible.

• respect the life experiences of our learners; life experience is also a learning experience.