The basic insight that the decision map wants to convey is that teaching about controversial issues entails significant risks. They can arouse antagonism and create division between students or between student and teacher. For this reason, you should reflect on whether it is worth the risk to address a controversial issue in your teaching.

It can sometimes feel tempting to use controversial issues to create engagement among students in teaching. Controversial issues are often of interest to students because they are usually topical in the public debate. The research, therefore, shows that controversial issues can increase engagement in teaching, especially if the students feel that they concern them personally in some way.

But is the reason “it creates engagement” a good enough reason to teach controversial issues? Engagement quickly risks turning into antagonism and division. Then your teaching might have a negative effect on learning. Is teaching controversial issues worth it?

It is also worth pointing out that teaching is carried out for specific purposes. Therefore, you should ask what purpose your teaching serves. What is it that you want students to learn? And does teaching a controversial issue help you and the students achieve this purpose?

Unlike the other questions in the decision map, this question does not have a follow-up question. It’s just a simple yes or no. And if it’s no, then you should consider not teaching the controversial issue.

Developing democratic competency as a purpose

Although you do not have to use controversial issues to achieve the purpose of your teaching, there may still be reasons to use them.

Often, a teacher, program, university or school has other purposes for teaching that are not always stated in, for example, a syllabus. Sometimes these purposes are legislated or written down in strategy documents. But often they are unspoken or limited to the individual teachers’ personal goals with their teaching.

One such purpose is to contribute to the students’ basic democratic competences. This is a purpose that is often highlighted in the research literature on teaching controversial issues. Diane Hess, among others, explains in Controversy in the classroom that the ability to discuss is a basic prerequisite for a functioning democracy. The fact that everyone has an opportunity to participate in public conversations and raise their concerns means (at least a symbolic) recognition that everyone is equal in public life. According to her, discussions on controversial issues thus offer an opportunity where an embryo of a democratic community is formed, where students as equals have the opportunity to express varying opinions and perspectives in a tolerant and respectful environment.

Another reason why teaching controversial issues is important is because students cannot avoid facing controversy in everyday life. In order to better equip them for conflict-filled encounters in the future, students need to have practiced confronting and being confronted by others. By training themselves in this under controlled teaching methods, they can thus learn to face such confrontations peacefully in everyday life.

Some research literature further argues that controversial issues, as they allow students to gain better knowledge about the affairs of minorities and marginalized people, make students better equipped to contribute to social change. Teaching controversial issues can therefore contribute to a moral and political awakening among students, where they are willing to fight for the rights of minorities and marginalized people.

There is support for these arguments in empirical research. The research indicates that those who take part in varying perspectives on certain issues in their everyday lives also express greater knowledge of and interest in democratic values. There is an additional correlation between students who have dealt with controversial issues with higher voter turnout, participation in voluntary activities, and interest in public affairs.

Thus, it is not always obvious that teaching about controversial issues serves a purpose in your teaching. However, there may still be reasons to use them, especially since they have the potential to develop your students’ democratic competencies.

References

Berg, Wolfgang, Leena Graeffe, och Cathie Holden. Teaching Controversial Issues: A European Perspective. CiCe Guidelines 1. London CiCE Central Coordination Unit, 2003.

Dewey, John. Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. Hardpress Publishing, 2013.

Feldman, Lauren, Josh Pasek, Daniel Romer, och Kathleen Hall Jamieson. ”Identifying Best Practices in Civic Education: Lessons from the Student Voices Program”. American Journal of Education 114, nr 1 (november 2007): 75–100. https://doi.org/10.1086/520692.

Fraser, Nancy. ”Politics, culture, and the public sphere: Toward a postmodern conception”. In Social postmodernism: Beyond identity politics, edited by Linda J. Nicholson och Steven Seidman, 287–312. Cambridge cultural social studies. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Graseck, Susan. ”Teaching with controversy”. Educational Leadership September 1 (2009): 45–49.

Hahn, Carole L. ”Citizenship education: An empirical study of policy, practices and outcomes”. Oxford Review of Education 25, nr 1/2 (1999): 231–50.

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

Hess, Diana E., och Paula McAvoy. The political classroom: Evidence and ethics in democratic education. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Hess, Diana E., och Julie Posselt. ”How high school students experience and learn from discussion of controversial public issues”. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision 17, nr 4 (2002): 283–314.

Kahne, Joseph, David Crow, och Nam-Jin Lee. ”Different Pedagogy, Different Politics: High School Learning Opportunities and Youth Political Engagement”. Political Psychology 34, nr 3 (juni 2013): 419–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2012.00936.x.

Kauppi, Veli-Mikko, och Johannes Drerup. ”Discussion and Inquiry: A Deweyan Perspective on Teaching Controversial Issues”. Theory and Research in Education 19, nr 3 (november 2021): 213–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785211052199.

McDevitt, Michael, och Spiro Kiousis. ”Deliberative Learning: An Evaluative Approach to Interactive Civic Education”. Communication Education 55, nr 3 (01 juli 2006): 247–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634520600748557.

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

Mitchell, Theodore R. ”The high court and Hazelwood: Chipping away at rights”. The Christian Science Monitor, 25 januari 1988.

Mutz, Diana C. Hearing the other side: Deliberative versus participatory democracy. 1:a uppl. Cambridge University Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617201.

Oxfam Education. Teaching controversial issues: A guide for teachers. Oxfam Digital Repository, 2018. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620473/gd-teaching-controversial-issues-290418-en.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

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.

Torney-Purta, Judith, Rainer Lehmann, Hans Oswald, och Wolfram Schulz, red. Citizenship and Education

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).