Granted that’s something of a trick question — most professors don’t teach courses where a topic like this might come up. But the larger issue here is whether it’s possible to ask students to wrestle with highly contested ideas in ways that are educational and intellectually demanding. That’s been top of mind for many faculty members as campuses have become sites of student encampments, pro-Palestinian students demanding their colleges disengage with Israel, Jewish students demanding stronger support from their colleges, and students getting into shouting and shoving matches with one another over Israel and Gaza.
I went looking for a course that tackles such a fraught topic, and found one at the Johns Hopkins University. Steven David, a longtime professor of international relations, has been teaching “Does Israel Have a Future?” since 2016. You can read my full story, but here’s a quick summary.
David designed the course to run directly at some of the toughest questions that have faced Israel since its founding. Was Israel a colonial creation of the West? Can Israel call itself a democracy? Are international efforts to delegitimize Israel unfair and antisemitic? And many more.
Over the years, David’s class has drawn a wide array of students, including Arab students who had never met a Jewish person and students from Jewish day schools who had never been asked to think about the displacement of thousands of Palestinians when Israel was founded. Plenty of students without strong views on Israel have also enrolled, wanting to learn more about the region’s complicated history.
David has never hidden his own identity as a Jewish person who is pro-Israel but also critical of many of Israel’s actions over the years. Nor does he expect his students to hide their identities and beliefs.
“As I tell them, there’s not so much right versus wrong, but there are good arguments and bad arguments here,” he says. “And I expect them to back up what they’re saying with the readings and the discussions to make the points they’re making.”
He avoids assigning textbooks and instead searches for authors with a strong point of view.
“I pick out readings that make a point, that have an argument,” he says. “If you want to say Israel is a settler-colonial project, have Rashid Khalidi make that point. But then I’ll balance it with, say, Simon Sebag Montefiore, who says it’s ridiculous to call Israel a settler-colonial project. I’ll have authors openly talking about Israel not having a right to exist, or that Israel is not a democracy because it privileges one group over another.”
Students often feel whipsawed, he says. “They read it and say, ‘Well, that’s right.’ Then, ‘Wait a minute. This person says that.’ And at least they get a sense of the complexity of these issues.”
Organizing each class session around discussion and debate also allows students to hear and learn from one another.
Yael Klucznik, a senior who is majoring in biomedical engineering and is Jewish, says she often found herself disagreeing with fellow students. “I was confused and I asked questions and I left certain classes a little upset about some things that my peers were saying. But every single week we would come back together and touch on a different topic. One week, I might disagree with a certain student about something, and the next week I might agree with them on something else.” The process helped her understand how “it’s not a black or white situation. It’s not, you’re pro-this or pro-that.”
If you’ve been wrestling with how to get your students to engage respectfully with tough topics, I’d encourage you to read the story. You might also want to read this story I wrote back in 2019 profiling different approaches to designing courses that focus on controversial ideas. And my colleague Erin Gretzinger wrote this deeply reported piece on why some campus events about the war in Gaza succeeded and some didn’t. That might give you a few ideas for your own teaching.
If you’ve got thoughts on how to constructively engage students in difficult conversations, write to me at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.come and your story may appear in a future newsletter.
Protests and teaching
As student demonstrations spread to more campuses we are curious to hear how you’ve responded in the classroom. Did you discuss the Israel-Hamas war or the protest movement with your students? Did you make adjustments to finals or other end-of-term plans? Tell us on this form.
Last-day ideas
Many of you already held your last day of class, but I wanted to point you to a recent Advice piece by Kristi Rudenga, director of the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Notre Dame.
Rudenga offers seven ideas to liven up your last day, such as using a job-interview prompt. Students work in pairs with one playing the employer who asks the question: “Oh, I see you took [insert the course name]. Tell me what you learned in that course.”
Perhaps her ideas will start you thinking about how you’d like to end your courses next fall. And if you have come across a great last-day strategy, let me know at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com, and your idea may appear in a future newsletter.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
–Beth
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