No matter how well you prepare your teaching, there is nothing that can make teaching controversial issues completely risk-free. Well-meaning and well-prepared teachers can testify to how their teaching suddenly became too controversial, in the sense that a polemical, perhaps even antagonistic, atmosphere arose in the teaching. 

Here we can think of several scenarios. For example, it may be a case of a student who expresses himself in a very offensive way, with the consequence that the other students refuse to cooperate with that student in the future. We can also imagine a situation where students position themselves against each other and form two or more “camps,” which in turn destroys the cohesion of the student group. Or it may also be that one or more students turn against you as a teacher and lose confidence in you. 

Whatever the situation is (and more examples than these can be mentioned), these are situations that the individual teacher cannot or should not even handle alone.

Management and colleagues are needed

If your teaching suddenly becomes too controversial, you should not have to stand alone with the conflict. You are entitled to collegial support and support from management. This box is therefore not only for you as an individual teacher. It is a message to all teaching staff to be prepared to stand by their colleagues.

This responsibility particularly affects those in management positions. They have an obligation to be responsible for the well-being of their employees. Therefore, if an untenable situation arises, you should notify and seek help from your supervisor as soon as possible. 

This should be stated clearly: If your colleagues cannot stand up for you in such situations, it is an expression of collegial dysfunctionality. And if so, you should ask yourself if it’s even reasonable for you to teach controversial issues, specifically because you can never completely avoid the risks involved in teaching controversial issues.

According to the decision map, you can teach about the controversial issue if you are prepared to handle any conflicts yourself. However, it is not recommended that you do so even if you are prepared to do so. 

References

Huddleston, Ted & Kerr, David (2017). Managing controversy: Developing a strategy for handling controversy and teaching controversial issues in schools. Strasburg: Council of Europe.

Portin, Fredrik. ”The Diplomatic Teacher: The Purpose of the Teacher in Gert Biesta’s Philosophy of Education in Dialogue with the Political Philosophy of Bruno Latour”. Studies in Philosophy and Education 39, nr 5 (september 2020): 533–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-020-09712-1.

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).