ABSTRACT
Teaching about oppression, power, privilege, and social transformation is an exciting and fraught process. This chapter focuses on reframing student resistance in order to better help students work through their discomfort. One of the biggest problem with characterizing these student reactions as "resistance" is that it is far too simple an explanation for the complexity of what is actually happening. The dissonance that arises from learning about oppression is more than a cognitive one. There is a productive and transformative level of dissonance but there is also a counterproductive level of dissonance. Mark William and Danny Penman call this the "soft" and "hard" edge. Students need to have space to process their emotions and they need to be taught how to do so in productive and compassionate ways. Social justice advocates often recognize the need for "safe space" to have truly honest and authentic discussions in the classroom.
