'It Happened to Me': How Faculty Handle Student Reactions to Class Material. Working Paper No. 132.

This paper addresses the problem of faculty members being confronted, in or out of the classroom, with students' personal reactions to some of the subject matter, especially sex and gender material, found in today's college sociology courses. The paper suggests some ways in which sociologists view student sharing of personal reactions and discusses how faculty can respond. Also discussed are the sociological courses and topics that are especially likely to spark student reactions and sharing behavior; some faculty reactions when such occurrences have taken place; ideas for coping with this behavior in the classroom; and observations from faculty on handling students' personal problems that come to them out of the classroom setting. It is suggested that faculty should think about the content of the materials that they will be presenting, the structural and organizational approaches they should use, and the goals of the course prior to content presentation in order to anticipate students' reactions and better meet their academic and personal needs. Contains 11 references. (GLR)