%0 Journal Article
%T Is "Safety" Dangerous? A Critical Examination of the Classroom as Safe Space
%A Betty J. Barrett
%J Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
%D 2010
%I Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
%X The notion that the classroom can, indeed must, be a safe space to promote student engagement and enhance academic outcomes is pervasive in the teaching and learning literature. Despite the prevalence of this claim, there is a dearth of empirical evidence documenting the effectiveness of safe space classrooms in achieving these goals. The purpose of this essay is to provide a critical examination of the classroom as safe space. I begin by deconstructing the common meanings of safety as presented in the pedagogical literature and provide an overview of the existing research on student perceptions of safe space learning environments. I then problematize the metaphor of the classroom as safe space through an examination of 1) the impact of safety on student intellectual development 2) the impossibility of safety for students in marginalized and oppressed populations 3) the challenges to assessing student learning in safe environments and 4) the ambiguity inherent in defining safety for students. I conclude by arguing that both educators and students are better served by the development of an alternative discourse of classroom safety, one that is predicated on the notion of classroom civility.Dans la litte rature sur l’enseignement et l’apprentissage, la notion selon laquelle la classe doit vraiment e tre un espace se curitaire pour promouvoir la participation de l’e tudiant et ame liorer ses re sultats scolaires est omnipre sente. Malgre  la pre valence de cette affirmation, il y a une pe nurie de donne es probantes empiriques venant e tayer l’efficacite  des classes en tant qu’espace se curitaire afin d’atteindre ces buts. L’objectif du pre sent essai est de proce der a  un examen critique de la classe en tant qu’espace se curitaire. Je commence par de construire la signification courante de la se curite  telle qu’elle est pre sente e dans la litte rature sur la pe dagogie et fournis un aperc u de la recherche existante sur les perceptions des e tudiants relativement aux environnements d’apprentissage se curitaires. Je conside re ensuite la me taphore de la classe en tant qu’espace se curitaire comme un proble me et examine : 1) les re percussions de la se curite  sur le de veloppement intellectuel des e tudiants; 2) le caracte re impossible de la se curite  pour les e tudiants qui font partie des populations marginalise es et opprime es; 3) les difficulte s lie es a  l’e valuation de l’apprentissage des e tudiants dans des environnements se curitaires; 4) l’ambigui te  inhe rente a  la de finition de la se curite  des e tudiants. Je conclus en expliquant
%K safe space
%K educational safety
%K classroom civility
%U http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol1/iss1/9