Lack of time is a recurring problem for almost all active teachers. Our ability to prepare our teaching often clashes with other work commitments – administration, conversations with colleagues and students, self-study, other teaching, and more. Clashes also happen with the responsibilities and needs we have outside of work – family, friends, hobbies, and more.

Several studies that have been conducted on the prerequisites for successful teaching of controversial issues emphasize the importance of preparing well. This is of course important for all teaching. However, since teaching about controversial issues is particularly risky, unprepared teaching about controversial issues can have problematic consequences. 

Teachers’ Experience

Teachers testify that they do not have the time resources required to prepare their teaching on controversial issues. Among other things, they often lack the time to familiarize themselves with the issue, which is one reason why they may feel uncomfortable dealing with it in teaching.

Teachers also state that they do not have time to train students in how to deal with controversial issues. Among other things, they do not have time to train them in how to address them, so that tolerant, instructive, and respectful conversations between students can take place. 

Request more hours

This is primarily a structural issue, where more time needs to be planned into office hours so that teachers have the opportunity to prepare well. Therefore, it is important that you talk to the management and request more hours if you are going to teach controversial issues.

Are you prepared, really?

Interestingly, one study shows that teachers sometimes overestimate their own level of preparation when teaching controversial issues. 

When observing teachers, the researchers noticed that the teachers, although they often stated that they were prepared, showed a lack of preparation in practice. The conclusion that can therefore be drawn is that one should spend more time preparing one’s teaching on controversial issues. Because even though you think you’re prepared to teach a controversial issue, you may still not be.

References

Evans, Ronald W., Patricia G. Avery, och Patricia Velde Pederson. ”Taboo topics: Cultural restraint on teaching social issues”. The Clearing House 73, nr 5 (2000): 295–302.

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

———. ”Discussing Controversial Public Issues in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms: Learning from Skilled Teachers”. Theory & Research in Social Education 30, nr 1 (januari 2002): 10–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2002.10473177.

Oulton, Christopher, Vanessa Day, Justin Dillon, och Marcus Grace. ”Controversial issues: Teachers’ attitudes and practices in the context of citizenship education”. Oxford Review of Education 30, nr 4 (2004): 489–507.

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.

Skolinspektionen. ”Skolornas arbete med demokrati och värdegrund: Kvalitetsgranskning, rapport 2012:9”, 2012.

Skolverket. Med demokrati som uppdrag en temabild om värdegrunden. Stockholm: Liber, 2000. http://www.skolverket.se/publikationer?id=721.

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).