Components of successful course design:

• Selection of course content
• Examine content and materials for inaccuracies or bias
• Awareness of potential issues of controversy
• Plan for conducting the class, including determining how students will be grouped for activities and discussion
• Knowledge of the diverse backgrounds of students
• Balance between challenging students and supporting them
• Instructor's comments, decisions, behaviors in the classroom

Classroom Strategies:

• Create an atmosphere of mutual respect and care
• Model behaviors of openness, honesty, willingness to take risks, respect for others
• Acknowledge fears and concerns about conflict
• Make questioning the norm, so that critical inquiry is a routine component of the course, not just when a controversial subject is introduced
• Be prepared for negative reactions to the material or the activity
• Be an effective facilitator: when discussion becomes heated, respond to it, so students see that the tension is being addressed
• Maintain a supportive atmosphere even when challenging what is perceived as hate speech
• Use self-directed humor or personal experience anecdotes to help students feel comfortable
• Discuss openly stereotyping and making individuals representatives of their culture
• Empower students to find their own voices and acknowledge personal accountability for what they say or do
• Assure students that expressing their views will not affect their grades, that what they write or say will remain confidential
• Invite students to write comments anonymously to give their reactions at the conclusion of a discussion and use these to address problems, discomfort, etc.
• Discuss how dialogue does not require one participant to be right and the other wrong
• Use a variety of assignments, classroom techniques, serious and light-hearted topics, collaboration
• Encourage and incorporate multiple perspectives and materials to avoid dualistic oversimplification
• Develop common goals/purpose to guide process and content
• Incorporate opportunities for students to reflect on their views, behaviors, attitudes in the light of their own experience.