[ATTW-L] Sex Ed as a fitting topic for instruction writing?

[Hilary Sarat-St Peter]

Kaye,

I think a course on instructional design is a great environment for taking
a critical look at sex ed -- a topic that involves lots of how-to
instructions, process descriptions and attention to human consequences.
I've never adopted sexual health as a course theme, but many students in my
undergraduate, mixed-major technical writing course have chosen to address
sexuality-related topics in their assignments. Based on my past experiences
evaluating technical writing projects about sexuality, here are some
thoughts that you might find useful:


   - I think the most likely landmine will be: How will you, as the
   instructor, lead the course with awareness of and sensitivity to trauma?
   Sexually related trauma will almost certainly come up in connection to
   course discussions. Your Title IX coordinator should be able to offer some
   offer guidance on preparing for those conversations.
   - The topic affords an occasion for students to learn how to ground
   recommendations in credible evidence. As you know, the quality of sex ed in
   many schools is just terrible. Consider designing the instructions
   assignment as a multi-step assignment sequence so that students must
   explore and evaluate a range of sources before designing their own
   instructions. Rigorous, specific, and clearly stated standards for
   considering and evaluating evidence should reduce the likelihood that
   students' prior exposures to misinformation will inform their work on the
   assignment.
   - Expanding the choice of of genres (e.g., allowing students to decide
   whether to make an instruction set, process description, technical
   illustration, etc) opens the door for students to address sexual health
   topics for which there can be no step-by-step manual, such as how to figure
   out one's own sexual orientation or establish good communication with a
   partner.
   - In addition to consulting the Title IX office, you might consider
   asking students to collaborate with you to set ground rules for class
   discussions and projects. For instance: In what situations might students
   or the instructor use non-medical terminology? Do students prefer to
   receive a warning before taking certain topics (such as sexual assault)
   under discussion? Inviting students to help you set those guidelines will
   work towards building the trust necessary for a productive, rigorous
   conversation about sexual health and sex education.

I hope this helps, and good luck!

Hilary





On Tue, Dec 31, 2019 at 12:12 PM Kaye Adkins <kadkinsphd at gmail.com> wrote:

> This spring, I'll be teaching an upper division/graduate level course in
> instructional design, and I'd like to start the semester with a refresher
> on writing simple instructions and process explanations. I've thought about
> what kinds of topics I could assign that aren't something students have
> worked with in their other tech comm classes and that don't necessarily
> have a lot of internet material that they could copy. During my morning
> shower "aha" moment, it occurred to me that maybe they could create
> material about sexual health--things like how an IUD works, how to use a
> condom, how to avoid STDs, etc. But I'd like to hear what others think
> about this idea. Any thoughts? (And I plan to run this by our Title IX
> person to see if there are any potential landmines.)
>
> --I don't need suggestions for major projects in the course--I've got
> those mapped out. I just want to know what folks think about this as a
> topic for instruction writing exercises.
>
> Thanks,
> Kaye Adkins
> Missouri Western State University
>
> --
> Less may be more, but you can't do more with less.
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