Rethinking Socratic Seminars: Making Small Changes for Larger Impact

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Socratic seminar is a long-standing tradition in our education system, as it challenges students’ ideas and values in an open forum where they can all participate. In this critical commentary, we discuss the values and barriers of Socratic seminars. We focus on three barriers: lack of institutional support, student exclusion, and student harm. Lack of institutional support for instructors can leave students exposed to harm when an instructor is unprepared to or anxious about navigating strong emotions and controversial commentary in the classroom. Teaching difficult topics is important and urgent in such a divided society, and we suggest pedagogical strategies for Socratic seminars to minimize harm and student exclusion, including scaffolding and low-tech solutions. We also acknowledge teacher anxiety and fear and encourage instructors to prepare themselves to intervene in those conversations and to support their students. We offer advice that has helped us collaborate to develop a critical practice, from self-reflexive writing to rehearsal.