Risk-taking in the classroom

There is a lot of theoretical literature on the practice of taking risks in the classroom, but given our practical bent this week (and perhaps more generally over the course of the semester), I wanted to offer this as a lens through which we might frame our discussion of classroom activities and plans -- either those that failed, succeeded wildly, or more realistically, those with mixed outcomes.

As we step into the classroom, each lesson or activity has one or more goals that we want to come out of it. e.g. After this lesson, students should understand how context can influence a text. Oftentimes, we may not articulate all of these goals to ourselves. And frequently there will be the line up of usual suspect goals, humming in the background: getting students to hone critical thinking, writing, listening, speakings skills, etc.

Each lesson or activity involves a risk, in some sense, because even if someone has been teaching the same class, lesson, or activity for 20 years (as we saw in the Shor piece), the exigencies of any given moment or classroom makeup can radically change how the lesson or activity is received and its outcomes. Thus, the "risk" of teaching is similar to "risk" experienced in life; we can't know what will happen.

But what do we do with that uncertainty?

I also want to propose another question: Is there an ethics of risk-taking in the classroom? To help illustrate what I mean by this: Who benefits when the activity / plan succeeds? Who is 'harmed' or left out when the activity / plan doesn't pay off (or fails in some way)? What do we do if the answer to this question is anyone besides the teacher? What about when the stakes are raised (e.g. it is a matter connected to the student's identity rather than simply not understanding some aspect of course content)?