Just because you have confidence in your students, doesn’t mean they can address controversial issues. They can be as nice and welcoming as they like. But when something is controversial, you often teach under completely different conditions and with a different risk. 

Studies show, among other things, that teachers doubt their students’ ability to have constructive conversations about controversial issues. Because teachers doubt the students’ abilities, they often choose to avoid teaching controversial issues.

It takes time to learn to respond to different perspectives in a respectful and tolerant way. Being able to listen to other people’s opinions, take them seriously, and respond to them in a respectful and tolerant way, is not something that comes naturally to people. Therefore, you should not assume that students are able to face controversial issues in a group where there are varying perspectives and desires. They must also be trained in how to respond to alternative perspectives and desires, including how to give and receive criticism.

If the students have not learned how to deal with controversial issues, there is reason to spend time training them in it. One challenge is that teachers don’t have time to do that during the course of a course. This should therefore be a common concern for the teaching staff. 

Minorities are often silenced

Students don’t always know how to make room for each other, especially those who represent a minority position. 

Teaching about controversial issues often leads to conversations. On the basis of a democratic ideal, such conversations should be conducted on an equal basis, where each of them is allowed to express themselves if they wish. However, the research literature shows that those who represent a minority or hold a minority position tend to have limited space in conversations about controversial issues. In relatively heterogeneous groups, the majority’s perspective risks dominating, while the minority does not stick its neck out.

Students and teachers do not always notice when this is happening. If you are in the majority, you can fool yourself into believing that your own position is the only or at least the most reasonable. You are thus privileged and have benefited from more or less pronounced structures and systems of exclusion in society. Although this is rarely a expressed will on the part of either students or teachers, less space is given to some students when certain controversial issues are discussed.

Thus, when you train students in how to deal with controversial issues, you should also draw their attention to the need to give space to those who represent a minority or hold a minority position. 

References

Byford, Jeff, Sean Lennon, och William B. Russell III. ”Teaching controversial issues in the social studies: A research study of high school teachers”. The Clearing House 82, nr 4 (2009): 165–70.

Conover, Pamela J., och Donald D. Searing. ”A political socialization perspective”. In Rediscovering the democratic purposes of education, edited by Lorraine McDonnell, P. Michael Timpane, och Roger W. Benjamin, 91–124. Studies in government and public policy. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000.

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

Journell, Wayne. ”Teachers’ Controversial Issue Decisions Related to Race, Gender, and Religion during the 2008 Presidential Election”. Theory & Research in Social Education 39, nr 3 (juli 2011): 348–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2011.10473459.

Lusk, Amy B., och Adam S. Weinberg. ”Discussing controversial topics in the classroom: creating a context for learning”. Teaching Sociology 22, nr 4 (oktober 1994): 301–8. https://doi.org/10.2307/1318922.

McAvoy, Paula, och Diana E. Hess. ”Classroom deliberation in an era of political polarization”. Curriculum Inquiry 43, nr 1 (2013): 14–47.

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).