“Calling in” vs. “Calling out” Framework

Create a “calling in” culture in order to foster critical and intentional dialogue. The act of calling a student into a challenging conversation requires “conversation, compassion, and context,” and it operates in contrast to calling students out or publicly shaming them for asking difficult questions or making problematic statements (Ross, 2020). Ask clarifying questions, provide evidence, and prompt students to think through their potential biases. 

• Derisa Grant also argues that instructors need to reframe “difficult conversations” in order to interrogate their own assumptions, because “by linking the necessity of these conversations to changing demographics or current events, we suggest that identity is only relevant when students who have been labelled ‘diverse’ are present…. [Thus], not only are such conversations ‘difficult,’ but the existence and very presence of these students becomes difficult” (2020). Consider the student identities that are being either prioritized or marginalized by the discussions taking place within the learning environment you’ve generated.