Anti-Harassment Training Does Not Work

Transformative Learning: Moving Information from Head to Heart

By: Dr. Candy Khan

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

No employer wants its employees to be bullied and harassed at the workplace. On the contrary, most employers offer an anti-harassment training to ensure employees understand company policy and legislation on workplace harassment. However, anti-harassment training typically focuses on definitions, rights of employers and employees, and complaint resolution processes. While this information is essential, anti-harassment training fails to allow for an interrogation of participant’s social location, positonality, and intersectionalty (who am I). Moreover, facilitators often teach anti-harassment via a “neutral lens,” failing to understand ways in which their identities shape their pedagogy (teaching). Dr. Candy focuses on a whole person approach, where participants could bring their whole self to the workshop (mind, body, emotions, and spirit), which could potentially lead to a transformative shift, moving the information from the head to the heart. A must read for those in the anti-harassment training space.