CONTENT WARNINGS AT CURTIN
Content warnings give students increased autonomy over their learning and contribute to creating a safe learning environment for all students to participate in.
Implementing content warnings will help address concerns that students have raised with the Guild regarding sensitive content being improperly introduced in their learning environment.
WHAT ARE CONTENT WARNINGS?
Content warnings are verbal or written notices that precede potentially sensitive content. While content warnings flag content that is potentially sensitive for anyone, trigger warnings are a specific variant of content warnings that flag content that may cause intense distress for an individual based on lived experience and/or associated conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
At a university level, unit content deals with topics that can impact the wellbeing and academic success of students who have lived experience of those topics. Some people may be at a point where they choose to avoid such topics in an academic context so that they can more effectively interact with it at a later date, while others may be at a point where they are ready to confront such topics but still benefit from a forewarning to prepare themselves before participating in a classroom discussion around it.
Content warnings are not intended to censure instructors nor invite students to avoid material that challenges them. On the contrary, warning students of potentially sensitive material can aid their engagement by giving students autonomy to take charge of their health and learning. The use of content warnings is a standard upheld by many organisations – including other universities – Curtin is currently lagging behind.
CURRENT ACTIONS
A pilot was run in the second half of semester one 2024 introducing content warnings to four units within the Faculty of Humanities and UniReady, in order to collect both student and staff feedback.
A “Content Warnings: Good Practice Guide” has been developed by the Guild in consultation with key stakeholders of the university and can be viewed here.
This guide is being made available to any teaching staff who want to use it as well as to any and all student who want to use it for their assessments.
FEEDBACK
If you have any questions or feedback about the Guide or the use of content warnings at Curtin please do not hesitate to reach out to the Vice President of Education at educationvp@guild.curtin.edu.au.