‘Our educational spaces must be forums for thoughtful discourse and conversation’

Announcement Date: May 27, 2022

SIT President Dr. Sophia Howlett responds to the school shooting in Uvalde

This week in Uvalde, Texas, once again we have experienced a mass shooting, just as the funerals had begun for the mass shooting victims in Buffalo and Laguna Woods. It is difficult to put pen to paper at these moments. There is sorrow, anger, and the overwhelming feeling of loss as we learn more about the children and teachers who died in Uvalde and there is also a sense of futility: we ask ourselves ‘what can we possibly do?’ What changed after Milwaukee and Minneapolis, Sacramento and Las Vegas and Aurora, Orlando and Blacksburg, Newtown and Parkland, San Bernardino and Columbine, and hundreds of other places in the United States? What will really change after Uvalde and Buffalo?

What we once thought of as sheltered and communal spaces—churches, mosques, and synagogues, movie theaters and nightclubs—have become places of violence. On Wednesday it was our safe space, the classroom, a place of learning, engagement, and friendship-building that should cross divides. Those who lost lives were teachers and students celebrating the end of the year, receiving prizes for academic achievement and service.

So, what can we possibly do? The answer is, we must keep going. We have to keep doing what we do; we have to re-double our commitment to the dialogue and engagement that can build a more sustainable, peaceful, and just world.  

As practitioners of intercultural communication, we have a duty to double down on our efforts to facilitate understanding of and respect for the commonalities and differences between people. Our society does not automatically instill these skills. They must be demonstrated and taught by educators, diplomats, and practitioners at every level. I believe that SIT, with its very special mission, has a role to play.

If we are to have an honest conversation about how to stop the increasing violence dividing our communities—and we must have that conversation—we must learn active listening.

As teachers and students of advocacy and policymaking, our educational spaces, wherever they are, must be forums for thoughtful discourse and conversation, places to think through policy and advocacy approaches that can build real change.

As community-builders, our classrooms must be safe spaces where every individual is respected and free from fear, as they learn and teach.

We are once again calling for an authentic reckoning within our societies. If we are to have an honest conversation about how to stop the increasing violence dividing our communities—and we must have that conversation—we must learn active listening. We must cross cultures wherever they are, we must build thoughtful, practical change, and we must learn how to build communities rather than divide them. We must learn to reach out and connect with one another.

I believe in a world where a global network of learners is empowered to become community-builders, collaborators, and peacekeepers. I believe we are all agents of change. We must all think about where we are in our lives, where we are in the world, and take some action that we believe can make a difference. As every SITer knows, once you see the world you cannot unsee it. We all know the work that needs to be done, wherever we may be, to confront injustice, heal divides, make the world a better and more peaceful place. Let’s get out there and make it happen.