Selecting Diverse and Non-Triggering Cases
During an exam, one of the questions featured a case study in which an individual had suffered from sexual assault. The assault was described in the exam question in some detail. As a student taking the exam had suffered from sexual assault, this was quite triggering for them. Consequently, they had trouble answering that question and suffered from poor concentration for the remainder of the exam, which likely influenced their grade overall.
Regardless of the format, many types of assessment contain examples, cases, or hypothetical situations to be resolved. When selecting or writing such a case, there are two important factors to consider. First, there should be diversity within the cases used, which is often lacking in university materials Dei, G. (2016). Decolonizing the university: The challenges and possibilities of inclusive education. Socialist Studies/Études Socialistes, 11(1), 23-23. . Here, diversity means that the people (clients, patients, etc.) in the case are diverse in terms of their background (ethnicity, gender, etc.) but also diversity in terms of the perspectives included (e.g., doctor and patient perspective). Ensuring diversity in the assessment cases better prepares students to work with a diverse range of people that represents our current society . Moreover, it is motivating for students with an under-represented background to see themselves reflected in their course, which has even been found to improve students’ civic engagement Bowman, N. A. (2011). Promoting participation in a diverse democracy: A meta-analysis of college diversity experiences and civic engagement. Review of Educational Research 81 (1), 29-68. . However, the use of stereotyped examples can also be problematic.
The second aspect that should be considered when selecting and writing cases for assessment is the possible triggering content. To the extent possible (and depending on the content of the material being examined), it is important to prevent students from being triggered by a case that may then negatively affect their grade. In this section below, tools are offered concerning triggering content as well as on making/selecting diverse cases without them being stereotypical.
Tools
How to make/select diverse cases for assessment
Diversity in assessment (or learning material) can be addressed using the following steps:
- What do I have now?
- What is missing and is that a problem?
- Avoiding stereotypical visuals or examples/cases and finding alternatives (with example)
1. What do I have now?
In this step, you need to examine the current status examples/cases in the assessment material. There are two main questions to consider: 1) are people from different backgrounds well represented in your material? and 2) are they portrayed in a stereotypical way?
Scan for ‘Representation of people of different background in examples/cases and visuals’
For each question consider the examples/cases and visuals Download word version :
- Are people from other genders than male and female (e.g. non-binary), included in …
- Are females and males portrayed in equal amounts in …
- Are couples included who are not heterosexual (e.g. two women) in …
- Are people from different ethnicities/nationalities portrayed …
- Are people of different religious faiths (e.g. Muslim, Jewish) portrayed in …
- Are people with physical and/or mental disabilities portrayed in …
- Are people of with different socio-economic status portrayed in…
- Are people of different age portrayed in…
- Are there any intersections between diversity aspects (e.g. a woman with a disability) included in …
2. What is missing and is this a problem?
Depending on the number of examples/cases within the assessment, it might be difficult to cover all aspects of diversity. Often, choices will need to be made regarding which examples of diversity aspects to include in the assessment. In this decision-making process, consider:
- Which diversity aspects are most related to the topic of the course?
- Which people are students most likely to come across in their future work?
- Which people are mostly under-represented in the visuals and examples/cases?
Based on
Dei, G. (2016). Decolonizing the university: The challenges and possibilities of inclusive education. Socialist Studies/Études Socialistes, 11(1), 23-23.
Bowman, N. A. (2011). Promoting participation in a diverse democracy: A meta-analysis of college diversity experiences and civic engagement. Review of Educational Research 81 (1), 29-68. doi: https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310383047
Coomer, M. N., Skelton, S. M., Kyser, T. S., Warren, C., & Thorius, K. A. K. (2017). Assessing bias in standards and curricular materials. Equity Tool. Indianapolis, IN: Great Lakes Equity Center.
3. Avoiding stereotypes in examples and visuals
When making the cases/examples and visuals within the assessment more diverse, it is important to be aware of and to avoid stereotyping. For instance, the table below provides examples of stereotypical representations and some explanations.
Scan ‘Avoiding stereotypical representation’
| Aspect of diversity | Stereotypical Example/case or visual | Explanation |
| Sex/gender | In a statistics lecture, students are given an example in which life satisfaction of business associates and hair stylists are compared. With the example, pictures are shown in which male business associates and female hairstylists are shown. | Women and men are often displayed as performing certain jobs. This perpetuates the false idea that the sexes are predisposed to certain roles in society. Therefore, it is important that both genders are represented in different jobs. |
| Sexual Orientation | Medical students receive a case in which a person who is gay has HIV. | Gay men are often stereotyped as being promiscuous and as having sexually transmitted diseases like HIV. Of course, all people regardless of their sexuality can get HIV. |
| Ethnicity/nationality | In law, students receive a case in which a Moroccan person is a thief stealing from a white person | Despite criminality being found among all ethnicities and nationalities, non-white people are often associated with crime. It is thus important to negate this stereotype. |
| Disability+gender | In a psychology lecture, an example is given of a boy with autism as a disability | People with autism are often displayed as men/boys, which has made it harder to identify autism in girls/women despite it existing. While autism can have negative attributes, there are also positive attributes. |
Based on
Coomer, M. N., Skelton, S. M., Kyser, T. S., Warren, C., & Thorius, K. A. K. (2017). Assessing bias in standards and curricular materials. Equity Tool. Indianapolis, IN: Great Lakes Equity Center.
Dei, G. (2016). Decolonizing the university: The challenges and possibilities of inclusive education. Socialist Studies/Études Socialistes, 11(1), 23-23.
Bowman, N. A. (2011). Promoting participation in a diverse democracy: A meta-analysis of college diversity experiences and civic engagement. Review of Educational Research 81 (1), 29-68. doi: https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310383047
Eisner, S. 2013. Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.
For more information, read about Diversity in learning materials
Selecting/making cases that avoid/minimise triggering
Where possible, examples should be avoided that may trigger students. If it is necessary to deal with such content in your assessment for the purposes of the course, the steps below could help guide your decision-making:
Step 1: what do I have?
Examine the content of the assessment materials for topics that could be triggering for students. The most common triggering topics are:
- homo and transphobia
- violence, war, abuse, depictions of blood
- rape and other forms of sexual violence
- racism or sexism
- self-harm/suicide
- eating disorders/body shaming.
Step 2: Evaluate, replace content, or add trigger warnings
Firstly, evaluate whether the examples/cases that contain any of these possible triggers are necessary to the course content being examined. If unnecessary, consider removing and replacing them in the assessment material. Consider also whether these potentially triggering issues are very likely to occur later in student’s professional life and thus whether it is necessary for students to learn how to deal with them. For instance, it may be important for a law student specialising in criminal law to learn how to deal with depictions of violence and blood. However, for students in a statistics master, many triggering cases and visuals may be unnecessary and distracting.
Thus, if the case in an assessment contains triggering issues, consider:
- If the triggering aspects are deemed unnecessary for the content being assessed and the course in general, remove and replace them with a different example/case/visual;
- If the triggering aspects are relevant to the course and/or likely to be prevalent in students’ later professional life, consider retaining the material but adding a trigger warning at the beginning to allow students to mentally prepare themselves. A trigger warning can be formulated as: “This exam includes reference to/consideration of themes of x, y, z, which might trigger unwelcome and distressing memories or thoughts for some students.”
Based on
Bentley, M. (2017). Trigger warnings and the student experience. Politics, 37(4), 470-485.
LaBossiere, M. (2014). Trigger Warnings and Academic Freedom I. Talking Philosophy.
Lockhart, E. A. (2016). Why trigger warnings are beneficial, perhaps even necessary. First Amendment Studies, 50(2), 59-69.
For more information on dealing with trigger warnings in a course, read about Trigger Warning in Learning Materials
