Discussing Controversial Issues in the Classroom

Hand, Michael; Levinson, Ralph

doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00732.x

Cited by 89 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The example shares this feature with much of the literature on the teaching of controversial issues. As Hand and Levinson have noted, discussion is widely considered the pedagogical approach ‘most appropriate to the exploration of controversial issues in the classroom’, perhaps so much so that ‘surprisingly little attention has been given to the questions of why it is the preferred approach and how best to facilitate it’ (Hand and Levinson, , p. 614).…”

Section: Making the Case: Practical Bearings Of Situationismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Controversial Issues: A Pragmatic View of the Criterion Debate

Sætra¹

2019

Journal of Philosophy of Education

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This article addresses the ongoing debate over which criteria should determine what teachers ought to teach as controversial. I argue that this debate rests on false assumptions. It is a mistake to assume that 1) there should be a context-transcending criterion, 2) such a criterion can be prescribed a priori and universally, and 3) this criterion can be utilised by teachers by means of deductivism. Instead, I argue in favor of a situationist stance in which the means and ends are both worked out from within the situation. This implies that a theory must begin from a practical starting point. In practice, the situation should be the foremost guide rather than a definite criterion.

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Section: Making the Case: Practical Bearings Of Situationismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Controversial Issues: A Pragmatic View of the Criterion Debate

Sætra¹

2019

Journal of Philosophy of Education

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“…However, many SSI are controversial, which means that contrary, yet well-reasoned, views could be held on the issues. Hence, the teacher cannot provide all the answers in discussions on SSI (Hand and Levinson 2012). Consequently, SSI offer opportunities for the teacher and the students to be positioned in alternative ways compared to conveyor and recipients of knowledge.…”

Section: Positioning Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ Positioning in the Classroom: a Study of Teacher-Student Interactions in a Socioscientific Issue Context

Bossér

Lindahl

2017

Res Sci Educ

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The integration of socioscientific issues (SSI) in science education calls for emphasizing dialogic classroom practices that include students' views together with multiple sources of knowledge and diverse perspectives on the issues. Such classroom practices aim to empower students to participate in decision-making on SSI. This can be accomplished by enhancing their independence as learners and positioning them as legitimate participants in societal discussions. However, this is a complex task for science teachers. In this study, we introduce positioning theory as a lens to analyse classroom discourse on SSI in order to enhance our knowledge of the manners by which teachers' interactions with students make available or promote different positions for the students, that is, different parts for the students to play as participants, when dealing with SSI in the classroom. Transcripts of interactions between one teacher and six student groups, recorded during two lessons, were analysed with respect to the positioning of the students as participants in the classroom, and in relation to the SSI under consideration. The results show that the teacher-student interactions made available contrasting student positions. The students were positioned by the teacher or positioned themselves as independent learners or as dependent on the teacher. Furthermore, the students were positioned as affected by the issue but as spectators to public negotiations of the issue. Knowledge about the manner in which teacher-student interactions can function to position students seems important for dialogic classroom practices and the promotion of student positions that sustain the pursuit of intended educational outcomes.

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“…In spite of the democratic mission of schooling, research shows that many teachers avoid addressing issues they think may be controversial or cause strong emotions in the classroom. Many teachers also report being unsure about how to address potentially controversial issues in their teaching [15][16][17][18]. This ambiguity of the situation may be grounded in teachers' lack of knowledge and/or uncertainty about how to address such questions in a constructive and educationally productive way.…”

Section: Controversial Issues In Teachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jihadists and Refugees at the Theatre: Global Conflicts in Classroom Practices in Sweden

2019

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In democratic societies schools have an obligation to address complex societal issues such as ethnic/religious tensions and social conflicts. The article reports an exploratory study of how theatre plays were used in upper-secondary schools to generate pedagogically relevant platforms for addressing the current Middle East conflicts and their impact on European societies in the context of religious education and civics. The schools are situated in areas with substantive migrant populations of mixed backgrounds, and this has implications for how these issues are understood as a lived experience. In the same classrooms, there were students who had refugee backgrounds, who represented different interpretations of Islam, and religion more generally, and whose families were victims of terrorism. There were also students with strong nationalist views. The study is ethnographic documenting theatre visits and classroom activities in relation to two plays about the Middle East situation. The results show that plays may open up new opportunities for addressing these issues, but that they may also be perceived as normative and generate opposition. An interesting observation is that a play may generate space for students to tell their refugee story in class, which personalized the experience of what it means to be a refugee.

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Discussing Controversial Issues in the Classroom

Cited by 89 publications

References 19 publications

Teaching Controversial Issues: A Pragmatic View of the Criterion Debate

Teaching Controversial Issues: A Pragmatic View of the Criterion Debate

Students’ Positioning in the Classroom: a Study of Teacher-Student Interactions in a Socioscientific Issue Context

Jihadists and Refugees at the Theatre: Global Conflicts in Classroom Practices in Sweden

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