I have a particular class where the tutor spends a lot of time talking about her lived experience, and asks people to share theirs (to less of an extent than she shares about herself though). Sometimes she can spend the whole two hours talking, to the detriment of our learning. She provides some bits of knowledge important to assessments that are quite valuable because of her lived experience and research, but the rest of her speech just doesn't resonate with a number of people in the class.

Not everyone has to enjoy her style of presenting, but the blatant disrespect from one particular class member is just disgusting. We had to sit in a circle and share ideas, and someone spent a really long time trying to articulate their ideas. They were just rambling. This one particular class member said within earshot of me,

"Shut up!"

I don't think anyone really heard it, but I did, because I was right next to him.

Then during the next class, I sat near this classmate again, and the whole time, he was scrolling through social media and messaging people. Every so often, he'd glance up. Because he only paid attention to what the tutor was saying for short moments, he only heard the parts where she hadn't made her point, and just heard rambling.

He started to bang on the table, and then he turns to me and says, "This class is so boring!"

The way the tutor teaches is based on story sharing, and is part of her culture's pedagogy. I can understand the other point of view, in that, having to listen to someone talk for almost two hours straight is a drainer. I find it quite difficult to pay attention to whatever the tutor is saying, as despite her prolific lived experience and wisdom that she shares amongst her rambles, I am just not good at listening for that long. I don't think anyone is.

However, banging on the table and telling someone to shut up, is blatant disrespect. I was always taught to be respectful to the people around me, and even if I wasn't able to focus for so long, I wouldn't be inclined to start making comments about it. I would potentially give the tutor feedback in private about wanting to participate more actively in the learning.

Also, I should mention that this person is a FUTURE TEACHER.

I felt like I should've called him out. Imagine if someone did that in his class.