Abstract

Should the university classroom be a ‘safe space’ or a ‘space of dialogue’ and/or a potential ‘space of conflict?’ With increasing differences in the political views and positions of contemporary leaders, the call for moving beyond ‘political correctness’ has sparked a perception of ‘freedom’ to speak freely without regard to politeness and civility in the name of honesty and the search for truth. In addition to this shift in what is quickly becoming normalized as a form of appropriate discourse, it fosters a culture of entitlement that lends support to voicing critique without critical inquiry. In this article, the multiple intersecting systems of power and privilege are examined. The recognition of contradictory subjective locations occupied by all the participants in the classroom, including the instructor, is accounted for in critical feminist pedagogies that challenge who speaks, who listens, and why. As practitioners seeking more effective forms of dialogue and engagement, we challenge conventional hegemonic discourses of difference and stereotypical representations within learning by questioning the politics of learning. We examine the clashes between discourse and policy in the university classroom.