Kate,
Thanks for your reflections and deep thoughts. This type of thinking out loud helps all of us. Group work can be a very helpful technique in the classroom. It seems to me that if a class is small, it may be unavoidable for women to work in class with known abusers. What does one do in such a situation? Does one then avoid group work? 
Daphne


>>> Kate Nonesuch <Kate.Nonesuch at viu.ca> 12/22/08 3:28 PM >>>

Daphne, you've given me an insight with your first "wonder":

>"I wonder what it is like for students to be paired with other students known as violent."


I didn't know until you asked your question what I was doing.  I knew there were perpetrators, because I know in any ordinary group of men that some will be violent to a greater or lesser extent.  I knew my students really knew each other because many have lived their whole lives in a relatively small community.  I knew I often asked students to work in pairs and small groups, and usually I put people together rather than letting them select themselves.  I didn't put those three pieces of knowledge together.  I didn't realize, until you "wondered" above, that I was using my power as a teacher to force women to sit beside and interact with men whom they knew to be abusers.

I feel ashamed. And I see another aspect of the complexity of this issue as it plays out in our classes. Thanks for that insight.

I have spoken often in the past about the practice of putting people into groups.  As a feminist, I avoid putting "difficult" men into groups where some woman will have to take care of them.  I know that if I, as an instructor, have difficulty managing a student in a group (talks too much/ doesn't listen/ makes sexist statements/highjack discussion, etc.) then I don't want to give the job of managing that student in a small group to the other students in that group.  Often I put two or three such students together.  Sometimes they go for coffee instead of doing the work assigned; sometimes I work with them to help them stay on task; at least they only interrupt each other, instead of each one interrupting a group if I spread them out in the groups I'm forming. 
    
 I also wonder what teachers to do take care of their own emotional and psychological needs when faced with situations such as these.

Kate Nonesuch
Victoria, BC
kate.nonesuch at viu.ca