Lack of time is a recurring problem for almost all educators. Our ability to prepare our teaching often clashes with other commitments within our service – 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 on the prerequisites for successful teaching of controversial issues emphasize the importance of thorough preparation. This is, of course, important for all teaching. However, since teaching about controversial issues is particularly risky, unprepared teaching can have problematic consequences. 

Teachers’ Experience

Teachers testify that they do not have the time 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 addressing it in teaching.

Teachers also state that they do not have time to train students in how to address 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, in which more time needs to be built into office hours so that educators have the opportunity to prepare well. Therefore, it is important that you speak with management and request additional hours if you plan to teach about controversial issues.

Are you prepared, really?

Interestingly, a study by Oulton et al. (2004) shows that educators sometimes overestimate their own preparation when teaching controversial issues. 

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

References

Evans, Ronald W., Patricia G. Avery, & Patricia Velde Pederson. ”Taboo topics: Cultural restraint on teaching social issues”. The Clearing House 73, 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, 1 (January 2002): 10–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2002.10473177.

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

Papamichael, Elena, Mary Gannon, Bojka Djukanovic, Rosa Garvín Fernández, David Kerr, & 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

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