Believing (in) Students

September 18, 2025

I’ve been teaching for a quarter of a century. It’s the point in one’s teaching career where one can become awfully grumbly or hopeful, jaded or wise, exhausted or continually rejuvenated, excited or bored, or full of wonder and gratitude for this amazing gift that is being in a classroom. Or sometimes all of those things at once. 

For many of us, supporting students as they learn continues to spark joy. But it’s also understandable how being lied to can dampen the joy–especially in the age of AI, when we may be thinking, often rightfully, “I’m basically just grading ChatGPT all the time.” Whether we’ve been teaching for 25 years or 25 days, we might be feeling a lot of mixed emotions about this important venture. 

Teaching is hard. Burnout looms. New challenges arise. We might be working under tough conditions for a variety of reasons. And we might be struggling. A lot. That said, it’s important to recognize that students are not responsible for the larger systemic issues that threaten higher education and might lead us to be frustrated or demoralized. Yes, sometimes students make poor choices, as many of us might have done (or still do). Students and faculty alike deserve empathy and care. 

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, CFI’s 2025 Wellness and Wellbeing Week speaker, argues that faculty should not take our (righteous) frustration out on students. We feel overwhelmed. Of course we do. And, often, so do our students. Recognizing that we are partners in this venture of teaching and learning, and working with students to reach our shared goals, can help us all work toward creating the kinds of spaces we want to exist in the world. 

Right about now, we might be craving kind and caring spaces. May Symposium 2025 keynote speaker Cate Denial makes a compelling case for believing students, a central tenet of A Pedagogy of Kindness. I know, I know. Students might lie. But they also tell the truth. By listening carefully to them, even if they might be misrepresenting or misunderstanding something, we can gather important information about their learning, and their lives. Faculty are experts in their fields, but students are experts in their lives and experiences. 

And, really, how much of our energy do we want to spend policing and investigating students? If they do lie, or cheat, or exaggerate, they’re already hurting their own learning, which is a negative consequence they will have to navigate. We also don’t know what might be going on in their lives that might lead them to choose to lie, or to feel that they don’t have any other choice. Trauma-informed pedagogy and healing-centered engagement can really help us here. As Liz Norell writes in The Present Professor, “I’d much rather get taken advantage of occasionally than to doubt someone in crisis.” We know, too, that when students are in crisis, they’re not in a position to learn. 

Especially when we are in what some call a “crisis of trust” in the classroom, investing in building trust can support our students’ learning. We can actually get to a higher level of learning if our focus is on the learning itself. Sometimes actions like enforcing policies or asking for documentation for missed classes can invade privacy, erode trust, and take our energies away from actual learning. 

Believing our students can also demonstrate that we believe in them, value them as whole human beings, and know they are capable of learning, which sometimes happens through mistakes and failure. We can both challenge and support them, and let them know we set high standards because we know they can reach them. Demonstrating to students that we want the best for them, and want to work with them to help them reach their goals, can go a long way. 

Here are a few ideas for believing (in) students: 

• Plan to build trust from, or before, the beginning of the semester. Greet students with a warm syllabus. For example, rather than framing policies around academic integrity as a threat, let students know you’re invested in helping them learn and follow academic integrity standards and practices. Being transparent and clear about our expectations, and why we have them, supports student learning. 
• Assume good intent in communications, such as emails. Sometimes we get emails or other messages from students that land hard. Yes, maybe they should have read the syllabus or assignment, or paid attention in class, or come to class, or looked it up. But we can take the fact that they are reaching out to us as a win: They trust us enough to be vulnerable and ask a question, and we can respond with gratitude and kindness (even if we’ve answered the same question again, and again, and again in our teaching careers). It can be helpful to point students to the right resource, such as the syllabus, but we can do so with care. 
• Aim for flexible and inclusive attendance and assignment policies. That way, students don’t need to give a reason for missing a class or turning in an assignment late. For students actually struggling, not having to use up bandwidth to disclose and document will be helpful. And, for students who just messed up, they can learn from that mistake without shame. This of course doesn’t mean setting no boundaries; that’s a different kind of dangerous. We do, after all, need to balance flexibility and structure. 
• Related, be thoughtful about (or even avoid) asking for documentation. 
• Express care in ways that feel true and authentic to you. Not every faculty member needs to or even should be warm and fuzzy; we can show up for students in different ways. Consider reframing comments, especially difficult ones, in the context of care. For example, instead of reprimanding a student for missing class or failing an assignment, we can be clear about what we’re really saying: Do a check-in, ask how they’re doing, and ask what they need and how we can support them. 
• Share resources with students, often. Let them know that if they are struggling, they don’t need to do it alone. Give them pathways for accessing resources, such as through the Counseling Center, the Dean of Students, the JMU Student Gateway, or, for basic needs, the Student Support Hub. 
• We can't know everything about what’s going on in our students’ lives. If we notice signs that a student is struggling (sometimes unexpected ones), we can use Madison Cares, a process that offers faculty support in supporting students. To learn more, please consider joining an upcoming Madison Cares workshop. 
• Access other resources and ideas around building community and relationships in the classroom, and why trust matters. Faculty Focus offers resources to help us assume the best in our classrooms. And, of course, check out our resources at the Center for Faculty Innovation.
  

On most days, I do believe in the inherent goodness of people and the world, and I seek the best in others (or at least I try hard to do those things). Sometimes, yes, that has led to some heartbreak and disappointment. But again and again, over the last 25 years, my students have shown me that often when you look for the best in someone, you’ll find it.