The Decision Map aims to help teachers prepare for teaching controversial issues. It highlights the most common pitfalls that teachers face when teaching controversial issues. By navigating from issue to issue, teachers can thus see the challenges they face when teaching a specific issue.

The pdf file of the decision map is interactive. When you click on one of the boxes, it takes you to a page that gives you more information on why that issue is important to consider.

Click on the image to download the decision map

Navigation

If you don’t want to navigate through the interactive PDF, you can also go to this page.

What is a controversial issue?

Controversial issues can be defined in different ways. One definition is that these are such issues or themes that have the potential for conflict between students or between student and teacher. This means that they have a special character in teaching, as they can cause significant disagreement and can arouse strong emotions. 

What constitutes a controversial issue is determined on the basis of ethical, historical, social, political, and ethnic contexts and principles. Examples of controversial issues that are often mentioned in the research literature are the Israel-Palestine conflict, abortion, distribution of economic resources, racism, sexuality, gender, immigration, and religion. But there are far more. 

Differences in what counts as controversial also occur depending on the context (not all issues are controversial everywhere) and timing (some issues may be more or less controversial in different time periods).

Why was the tool created?

Since controversial issues can lead to significant disagreements, it is risky to address them in teaching. This risk is reinforced by the fact that many teachers state that they have received very little or no training at all in teaching controversial issues. 

To assist teachers’ work in teaching about controversial issues, this tool has the purpose of highlighting the risks that this type of teaching entails. 

Mind you! The aim is not to get teachers to avoid teaching controversial issues. On the contrary, there are good reasons why a teacher chooses to do so. However, this type of teaching requires careful preparation, as it can have negative consequences if done incorrectly, with harmful polarization and polemics probably being the most problematic. 

It is not always possible to avoid teaching becoming controversial

Even if you don’t teach topics that are controversial, or if your subject area itself is not controversial, it can still happen that your teaching becomes controversial.

Every teacher lives with the risk of controversy suddenly arising in their teaching, even if they did not think that what was being discussed was controversial. For example, it may be that a student highlights something during a lecture that can be perceived as controversial, and which the teacher then has to deal with. Or the teacher says something that a certain group of students finds offensive, even though another would not have done so.

It is difficult to prepare for such events. If they happen, you hope that you can get support from colleagues and management, especially if you feel that you cannot handle the situation yourself.

The decision map is not developed for such situations. What you can do, however, is to use it when talking about controversial issues with colleagues. Use the decision map to discuss current or potentially relevant controversial issues with your teaching team. For example, it was reasonable after October 7, 2023, to highlight the Israel-Palestine conflict as a controversial issue that could potentially appear in teaching.

By discussing potential issues with the help of the decision map, you can see what individual and collective challenges exist within the team to deal with a particular controversial issue. In this way, the team can be prepared to handle it if it suddenly appears in class.

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How do you use the tool?

The decision map is quite intuitive. You start at “Start here.” Then, answer yes or no to each question to see if it’s reasonable for you to teach a specific controversial issue. If you answer no, you will usually get a follow-up question.

If you manage to maneuver your way down to the last box, then you can easily teach about the controversial issue. However, if your answers take you to the right pane, you should consider not teaching about the controversial issue. 

Notice that it says that you should “consider” not teaching a controversial issue. It does not say that you absolutely should not teach about the controversial issue. Thus, just because you get to the panel on the right doesn’t mean you can’t teach a controversial issue. Sometimes it’s even necessary to do so – perhaps because your subject requires you to address a particular issue, or because it’s a topical issue that students are demanding that you address.

If you want to know more about why each question is important to consider when teaching controversial issues, you can click on the box for that question. It will take you to a homepage with more information. On the website, there is also a short introductory video to each box, as well as references to research literature.

Material

Hess, Diana E. Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. The critical social thought series. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Misco, Thomas. ”The importance of context for teaching controversial issues in international settings”. International Education 42, nr 1 (Fall 2012): 69–84.

Papamichael, Elena, Mary Gannon, Bojka Djukanovic, Rosa Garvín Fernández, David Kerr, och Ted Huddleston. Living with Controversy: Teaching controversial issues through education for democratic citizenship and human rights: Training pack for teachers. Strasburg: Council of Europe, 2015.

Portin, Fredrik. ”The Paradox of Controversy: The Possibilities and Risks of Teaching Controversial Issues in Religious Education”. In Religious Literacy in Secular Religious Education: Nordic Perspectives and Beyond, edited by Daniel Enstedt, Karin Kittelmann Flensner, och Wilhelm Kardemark, 195–213. Religious Diversity and Education in Europe, volume 46. Münster New York: Waxmann, 2024.

Other

If you feel that this decision map was helpful, please share it with your colleagues and others who could potentially use it.

For questions and comments, please contact Fredrik Portin, Malmö University (fredrik.portin@mau.se).