Reflection on Socratic Seminar

March 25th, 2017

Elaine Kuoch

The format of Socratic Seminars can often be helpful and enriching for students,
but using Socratic Seminars to discuss controversial or sensitive topics seems to not be
a great idea. The structure and guidance a teacher can provide during the seminar is
quite limited, and discussing controversial and sensitive issues in a conducive,
thoughtful way with students is difficult when you as the teacher are barely able to
direct the conversation and set specific guidelines.
I didnt realize this when I set out to have a Socratic Seminar with my students
about immigration. Due to my lack of experience doing Socratic Seminars and talking
about controversial topics within my classroom, I didnt anticipate what would happen
during the discussion, which is that students would ask questions about the validity of
topics such as eugenics and race-based discrimination. The nature of Socratic Seminars
is that students might read an article and pick a few of the most important topics
mentioned in the article. Then, they might ask their classmates what they think about
that topic and whether they agree with it. I do not ever want my students to debate the
validity of the eugenics movement in my class, yet exactly that happened during the
Socratic Seminar. While students discussed whether or not the government should ban
people from specific countries from entering the country, I felt a bit voiceless and like I
could not help students process the opposing sides. My only role was to correct any
misunderstandings from the text or inaccurate information, and this role did not allow
me to structure the conversation as I would have liked to, with a clear framework of
what would be acceptable and unacceptable within our conversation. The Socratic
Seminar format allowed for students to share political views that contrasted mine, and
while in some ways this may have pushed me to allow for more bipartisan viewpoints in
our class discussion, I was also worried that letting a student explain why the
government was justified in banning immigrants from certain countries would make
other studentsspecifically immigrant students and Muslim studentsfeel unwelcome
in our classroom based on their identities.
This tension between providing students with an environment in which all
political views are accepted while all students identities are respected is something
that I often go back to. How can I make sure that all my students feel welcome to share
their ideas yet also create an atmosphere where all students feel respected? How can I
help my immigrant students feel supported while remaining neutral as a teacher?