Covering sensitive content with students

Many of us have had the experience of teaching something that makes us uncomfortable. If you haven’t yet, you will. Maybe it was your first time teaching students about sexual health, or maybe you were teaching a subject that wasn’t your strongest when you were a student. Or, maybe you were tasked with teaching content that required new learning on your part and you found yourself learning alongside your students. Teaching can be vulnerable, particularly when what we’re teaching feels unfamiliar, sensitive, or even triggering, for us and for our students. Sometimes what you’re teaching brings you face to face with your own insecurities, past trauma, or biases. The more sensitive the subject matter, the more likely you’ll encounter uncomfortable silences and difficult conversations in your classroom.

When I started working with The Endometriosis Network Canada to develop the inclusive menstrual health program, What you need to know. Period. I knew I was creating content that had the potential to make people uncomfortable. To be honest, it made me a little uncomfortable.

I didn’t grow up talking openly about periods. I was pretty young when I started menstruating and I was the first person in my friend group to get my period. I was embarrassed and I felt a lot of shame. I’m part of a generation of people who hid their pads or tampons on the way to the washroom. It would have been a nightmare to get caught carrying period products around.

I’m an educator and I work with a range of age groups and abilities, from elementary school-aged youth to adults. I’ve worked in the literacy field for almost ten years. I’ve coordinated and managed national literacy programs. Now, I create and facilitate educational programs. Most of the programs I coordinated and later managed, were delivered by facilitators and volunteers who served learners with multiple barriers to traditional learning. I have the pleasure of training facilitators and volunteers from all walks of life and levels of teaching experience. I research, present, and teach best practices for working with new and potentially sensitive content, ranging from financial to health literacy. Over the past ten years, I’ve heard echoed a resounding need for training and preparation support for educators.

We knew that talking and learning about periods had the potential to enter into uncomfortable, sensitive, and challenging territory, for students and teachers alike, which is why we developed the facilitator training.

The What you need to know. Period. facilitator training is underpinned by best practices in facilitation. All of the concepts and strategies can be adapted to delivering different kinds of content to a range of age groups and abilities. As educators, we often feel pressure to be experts in a topic before we teach it to our students. Whether a new or potentially sensitive subject, there are some tools you can have at the ready to support you to navigate uncomfortable silences, difficult conversations, and even your own discomfort with a topic.

Speak plainly

Start by speaking plainly and using the correct terms. When talking about a potentially sensitive topic, people often use coded language. For example, there are lots of words people use to talk about periods, without actually saying the word “period” or “menstruation.” Some might be euphemisms: indirect words or expressions we use instead of the more accurate word, in an effort to be polite, more socially acceptable, or to avoid embarrassment. Other terms might be humourous or even harmful. Ask yourself: what message does having so many different code words and slang to talk about a natural, healthy bodily function send to people who get a period, or who may eventually get a period?

Are there topics you already teach where coded language is typically used, whether by you, your students, or society? Perhaps history, anatomy, world religions, art, civics, or Indigenous studies? Is there a subject you teach where you’ve felt uncomfortable using the most straightforward language to say what you mean? How did you ultimately decide what words to use with your students? How did you address the word choices your students made?

Whether you’re teaching period literacy, history, or art, speak plainly and use the most accurate language, even if it’s uncomfortable at first.

Model the comfort you want to see

As educators, if we’re not comfortable with the subject matter we’re teaching, how can we expect the young people in our classroom to build the comfort we’re hoping to foster? By modelling the comfort and the behaviour we want to see, in ourselves, in our students, and in society.

Comfort comes with practice. When I first started facilitating focus groups with our youth and educator advisory committees when developing What you need to know. Period. I wasn’t comfortable talking openly about periods. But, by the time I delivered a series of live facilitator training sessions for educators, I heard myself say, “I’m Allison, and I’m a person who gets a period. I’m an advocate for sexual health.” The more I practiced saying the word “period” instead of “time of the month,” the more comfortable I became with the topic, and the less shame I felt for having a period. I was healing my past wounds, one session at a time.

Say “I don’t know.” You don’t need to have all the answers

Teachers have a lot on their plates. It’s impossible to be an expert in every subject you teach. You don’t need to know everything. You don’t need to have an answer to every question from your students, and you won’t. In fact, it might even help if you don’t.

Saying “I don’t know” when you don’t know the answer to a question from a student is a great opportunity to build trust. Having the courage to admit when you don’t know something helps break down power dynamics that are poorly suited to covering sensitive content with your students.

When you say “I don’t know,” you open the door to engaging with your students in a different way. You might consider asking if anyone else in your group has an answer or relevant experience that might offer some insight.

When you don’t know the answer to a question from one of your students, it’s an opportunity to find the answer together. You might say something like, “leave this with me and I’ll work to find an answer to your question,” or, “that’s a really good question and it’s one I don’t have the answer to right now. Why don’t we all look for the answer together?”

We know students will Google their questions anyway, particularly those around sensitive content, and we will too; Searching together creates opportunities to learn about safe online searches and how to find reliable sources of information.

Step into a facilitator role

Teaching potentially sensitive content, like menstrual and sexual health, may lead you and your students into new and unfamiliar territory. The material might feel sensitive for some, uncomfortable for others. When you’re in potentially uncomfortable, challenging territory, consider shifting into the role of a facilitator with your students. As a facilitator, you:

• Are a guide, helping youth explore and find answers to their questions
• Ensure respectful dialogue, active listening, and participation
• Share your own relevant experiences to create a safer space for students to share
• Encourage, empathize, and ask open-ended questions

 If you encounter resistance in your group or difficult, disruptive, disrespectful behaviour, here are a few ideas to help you navigate the discomfort.

Get comfortable with the uncomfortable – Allow for uncomfortable silences. They won’t last forever. But, if engagement is tricky, consider sharing one of your own relevant experiences with the group to help build trust and create a safer space for sharing.

For example, when facilitating a focus group with our youth advisory committee during the early stages of developing the What you need to know. Period. program, I experienced a lengthy uncomfortable silence after asking an open-ended question. The question was about societal and cultural perceptions of menstruation. After pausing to see if anyone in my group would answer, I opted to encourage the group to share their own experiences, by leading by example and volunteering one of my own experiences first. I shared how terrified I was when I first got my period. I knew what it was, knew to tell my mom about it, but I also somehow knew that I needed to keep it a secret from everyone else, including my friends. The messages I’d absorbed from the world around me, were that having a period was a burden, a curse, and something to be ashamed of. Once I’d shared my relevant and appropriate experience with the group, the conversation started flowing again.

Lead with empathy – When there is resistance to the topic, lead with empathy. Ask the group why they think it might be important for everyone to learn about the subject.

For example, in our live facilitator training for the What you need to know. Period. program, I posed the question of how to navigate difficult conversation with youth, particularly those where a facilitator meets with resistance or disinterest in a topic. Participants shared a range of tools from their teachers’ toolkits, including asking students what it feels like to be misunderstood, or to have something about themselves that they keep secret, or hidden from others. Similarly, when I asked our youth advisory committee whether they saw the value in learning about periods, even if they might never get a period, one of the male-identifying students replied that he has sisters and hopes to one day have a girlfriend, and that he wants to know what they’re going through, so that he can be supportive. Appealing to and fostering students’ empathy can help you navigate this kind of resistance.

Ask open-ended questions – Avoid asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions; they’re conversation stoppers. Instead, get curious, stay open, and make positive assumptions about the young people in your group.

For example, in the role of facilitator, particularly when working with potentially sensitive material, it can be helpful to support students to find their own answers to questions and to encourage personal reflection. Asking open-ended questions about how they already feel about the subject and encouraging youth to explore the nature and source of their relationship to the topic can lay the groundwork for important discovery.

You could ask questions like:

• Is there anything we’ve missed? What would you add?
• Does this perspective leave anyone out?
• Does what we’ve just learned bring anything up for you?

Check-in and follow-up questions that get a conversation started can boost engagement in your group.

Addressing sensitive topics in school creates valuable learning opportunities to build awareness, cultivate empathy, and to address taboos. For example, a randomized controlled trial conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia found that when Grade 8–12 students of all genders participate in a one-hour menstrual health education program, their knowledge about menstrual health increases and their attitudes about menstruation become more positive. Educating all students – not just those who will get a period – may help destigmatize menstruation at a societal level. I am witnessing this shift in my work. Many of the young people I teach talk freely about their periods. I recently had a student ask me, in front of a group of her peers, whether I thought tampons or menstrual cups were best to use on heavy flow days. At first, I was shocked by her courage, then I was impressed. I was also admittedly a little envious that she was growing up free to speak openly about her body, ask questions, and talk about her experience of being in that body.

Developing the What you need to know. Period. workbook was only half of the work of creating the program; developing and delivering the facilitator training to help prepare educators to teach the content to youth was the other important half. Comprehensive training and supports to help educators deliver new and sensitive content are key. The live as well as pre-recorded training are giving educators the confidence to enter into potentially sensitive territory and to push through any lack of comfort or familiarity with the topic.

When supports aren’t provided, consider adapting tried and true practices relevant to your subject matter, teaching style, and students. Look for programs and materials that allow you to integrate the new content into your existing curriculum, keeping what’s working well, and filling in gaps as and when necessary.

Meet the Expert(s)

Allison Nichol Longtin

Freelance Educator & Curriculum Developer

Allison Nichol Longtin is a writer, educator, and curriculum developer based in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. She’s a lifelong learner and an advocate for literacy.

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