Creating social safety as a university lecturer

As a university lecturer, in International Business at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, one of the many tasks we perform alongside teaching is creating/maintaining social and psychological safety in the classroom.

It was great to have the chance to shine a spotlight on this at our staff day on 13 June 2023. Thank you to Nabila Zahaf, Adviseur sociale veiligheid & zorgwekkend gedrag (Advisor for safety and concerning behaviour) for a great presentation/mini workshop on this topic.

Definition

He shared the definition from the “Inspectie van het Onderwijs” (translated from Dutch)

An educational institution is safe when the social, psychological and physical safety of students and employees is not affected by the actions of others. This means that there is a safe and positive atmosphere within the educational institution. This also means that bullying, discrimination, (sexual) intimidation, aggression, violence and other forms of undesirable behaviour are unacceptable, that the institution takes action against this and prevents this as much as possible.

My own notes

It’s a huge topic with a lot to process. My notes are below:

• We are all responsible for creating a safe environment
• We need to take responsibility for our own actions and effect on others
• Shaming is often used – but does not work (and usually creates more damage)
• We can “agree to disagree”
• Jokes are ok – IF everyone is genuinely laughing – and not at someone’s expense.
• How can we express opinions without hurting others.
• Why do they (students) need to express their opinion?
• Create boundaries of respect
• No judgement
• What is the INTENTION?
• “I heard the other side” and it changed my mind
• Hold space for the conversation
• Find the balance and respect
• What emotions are at play?
• Most people want to know – do you hear me? Do you see me? Otherwise things escalate

Something to remember is that we, as lecturers, are generally working on this ALONGSIDE the actual part of “teaching” the materials we are there to teach. 

We are also in an incredibly diverse environment, which I love, but which brings many layers of belief and potential conflict. For example, we often may have students in the same room from countries that may even be currently at war. 

Sometimes we don’t feel the social safety ourselves either for various reasons.

So it’s a lot…but also a privilege to be the one to facilitate this kind of environment.

It’s great to be able to have spent some time talking this through as lecturers from various perspectives, and also sharing some experiences, tips and ideas with each other.

One of my biggest takeaways is the fact we all mostly just want to be seen, heard and understood. 

Safety can also mean different things to different people.

Personally, for the majority of the time I have worked at THUAS (8 years), I’ve felt safe at work, and hope my students do too. There have certainly not been any explicit forms of violence, aggression etc.

However, I’ve most certainly experienced myself and seen examples of possible discrimination and bullying, as well as heard stories about this from colleagues and students. I feel that this is near impossible to eliminate. For whatever reasons, it seems to be a part of the human experience in almost any environment -but this does not make it acceptable. So much of this is subtle, and hard to prove, and often the burden of proof can fall on the “victim” and not the perpetrator, so is often not addressed.

So I’m grateful that it seems to become more and more common to have this kind of training and discussion and try to create safety – as the definition above says “as much as possible”. I’m also glad that support for those who do not feel safe are becoming both ethically but also legally built into systems more. For example, confidential advisors readily available for both staff and students.

Educational environments should be a safe place for all and I hope to continue to learn about this myself and how I can contribute.

Renee