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Thriving in Academe
Tales from Real Life

Exploring Our Differences

Since we both like to reflect on teaching issues we’ve encountered, it was no surprise that one day we found ourselves deep in discussion of how diversity issues affect us both in and out of the classroom.

We came across an example of this when we began a discussion of high unemployment rates among military spouses. This is an interesting and innocuous topic that could be used in a variety of courses—as a case study for analyzing the economic impact of the unemployment, for example, or in a business class concerned with creating business plans for employers.

We quickly agreed that if we were students in a class discussing this issue, we would react in very different and perhaps unexpected ways. Looking at us, a teacher could easily assume we would have similar responses simply because we have similar physical features.

But there are several important, yet invisible differences between us. One of us is a military spouse herself, with a husband on military deployment overseas. The other is gay, and thus legally excluded from both marriage and the military.

If we were students in this class, we would each have very real but different emotional reactions to this case study. These reactions would impact our engagement in the learning process, as well as provide perspectives and experiences that could enrich, broaden, and deepen the discussion of the case in ways the teacher might not have foreseen.

—Kathryn M. Plank and Stephanie V. Rohdieck
The Ohio State University

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