Download or read book Teacher Disclosure and the Classroom Use of Controversial Issues written by Michael C. Johnson and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Controversy in the Classroom written by Diana E. Hess and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a conservative educational climate that is dominated by policies like No Child Left Behind, one of the most serious effects has been for educators to worry about the politics of what they are teaching and how they are teaching it. As a result, many dedicated teachers choose to avoid controversial issues altogether in preference for "safe" knowledge and "safe" teaching practices. Diana Hess interrupts this dangerous trend by providing readers a spirited and detailed argument for why curricula and teaching based on controversial issues are truly crucial at this time. Through rich empirical research from real classrooms throughout the nation, she demonstrates why schools have the potential to be particularly powerful sites for democratic education and why this form of education must include sustained attention to authentic and controversial political issues that animate political communities. The purposeful inclusion of controversial issues in the school curriculum, when done wisely and well, can communicate by example the essence of what makes communities democratic while simultaneously building the skills and dispositions that young people will need to live in and improve such communities.

Download or read book Politics in the Classroom written by Anthony Joseph Zavagnin and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Social studies teachers face a dilemma when addressing controversial issues in the classroom. Research supports the incorporation of controversial issues into the social studies curriculum as a means of encouraging authentic debate and deliberation among students. While research supports student engagement with controversial issues, the literature is far from consistent as to the role that teachers should play during these lessons. An important question remains unresolved: should teachers divulge their personal opinions to students when teaching lessons involving controversial issues? To examine disclosure, this study asks what underlies teacher decision-making regarding teacher disclosure of personal political beliefs during social studies lessons that involve controversial issues. This multiple case study interviewed twenty secondary social studies teachers across seven suburban schools about how they made disclosure decisions. 15 of the 20 teachers in this study practiced some form of teacher disclosure. For the majority of teachers, disclosure depended upon contextual factors that included the age of students, personal connection to the topic, perceptions of the school and greater community, and the nature of the topic under discussion. While the teachers in this study discussed many factors that guided classroom practice, the most prominent factor involved personal understandings of the appropriate role of the teacher during class lessons. This study involved teachers with a variety of teaching experiences, and found that teaching experience had relatively little impact on how teachers practiced disclosure. Teachers also provided best practice recommendations involving disclosure. Those who did practice disclosure recommended that teachers share their personal beliefs when the topic related to the curriculum, and towards the end of the class lesson. Participants also believed that teachers should balance controversial issues and expressly convey their beliefs to students so that there is no confusion between the teacher's personal beliefs and the curriculum. This study concluded that instead of a focus on whether teachers should practice disclosure, the conversation should shift to how teachers should practice disclosure based on the best practice recommendations voiced by participants.

Download or read book Hard Questions written by Judith L. Pace and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-02-15 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teaching controversial issues in the classroom is now more urgent and fraught than ever as we face up to rising authoritarianism, racial and economic injustice, and looming environmental disaster. Despite evidence that teaching controversy is critical, educators often avoid it. How then can we prepare and support teachers to undertake this essential but difficult work? Hard Questions: Learning to Teach Controversial Issues, based on a cross-national qualitative study, examines teacher educators’ efforts to prepare preservice teachers for teaching controversial issues that matter for democracy, justice, and human rights. It presents four detailed cases of teacher preparation in three politically divided societies: Northern Ireland, England, and the United States. The book traces graduate students’ learning from university coursework into the classrooms where they work to put what they have learned into practice. It explores their application of pedagogical tools and the factors that facilitated or hindered their efforts to teach controversy. The book’s cross-national perspective is compelling to a broad and diverse audience, raising critical questions about teaching controversial issues and providing educators, researchers, and policymakers tools to help them fulfill this essential democratic mission of education.

Download or read book I Can t Just Let Those Things Stand How Social Studies Teachers Make Sense of Political Disclosure Classroom Safety and Controversial Issues in Contentious Times written by Rebecca Genevra Cooper Geller and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While discussions of controversial social and political issues are described as vital to a quality school-based democratic civic education, teachers may find it difficult to broach divisive partisan issues, especially during times of increasing political polarization and contentiousness like the United States in the Trump era. It is often taken for granted that when leading controversial issue discussions, teachers should create an open classroom climate and should enact a neutral political stance. In this dissertation, I studied the limitations of these traditional approaches to discussions in contexts of sociopolitical hostility. This study follows up on Rogers et al.'s (2017) nationwide study of teaching and learning in the Trump era. I draw on qualitative semi-structured interviews that were conducted with social studies teachers in diverse communities across the United States in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Drawing on theories and frameworks of teacher political disclosure (Kelly, 1986), pedagogy of political trauma (Sondel et al., 2018), and sympathetic touch (Du Bois, 1935), I explored how U.S. public high school social studies teachers made sense of their experiences leading discussions in this time of contentious and polarized national politics. Findings from this dissertation speak to the conditions and priorities of teachers in controversial issue discussions. First, I describe how teachers experienced and understood the contentiousness and sociopolitical hostility of the national political climate as it played out in their classrooms. Second, I examine how teachers prioritized competing goals related to classroom climate; specifically, as teachers described wanting to build classrooms that were safe for their students, I explore what they understood a safe environment to be, and whose safety they prioritized. Finally, I look at how teachers thought about disclosing their personal political beliefs and opinions in the classroom. This research offers insights into how teachers conceptualize their roles in discussions of controversial issues with young people, including the complexity and contextual nature of these seemingly straightforward pedagogical decisions, and the need for teachers to take proactive, empathetic steps to provide support and protection to young people from marginalized groups in order to challenge intolerance under the guise of academic discourse.

Download or read book The Political Classroom written by Diana E. Hess and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER 2016 Grawemeyer Award in Education Helping students develop their ability to deliberate political questions is an essential component of democratic education, but introducing political issues into the classroom is pedagogically challenging and raises ethical dilemmas for teachers. Diana E. Hess and Paula McAvoy argue that teachers will make better professional judgments about these issues if they aim toward creating "political classrooms," which engage students in deliberations about questions that ask, "How should we live together?" Based on the findings from a large, mixed-method study about discussions of political issues within high school classrooms, The Political Classroom presents in-depth and engaging cases of teacher practice. Paying particular attention to how political polarization and social inequality affect classroom dynamics, Hess and McAvoy promote a coherent plan for providing students with a nonpartisan political education and for improving the quality of classroom deliberations.

Download or read book Teaching Controversial Issues written by Nel Noddings and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, eminent educational philosopher Nel Noddings and daughter Laurie Brooks explain how teachers can foster critical thinking through the exploration of controversial issues. The emphasis is on the use of critical thinking to understand and collaborate, not simply to win arguments. The authors describe how critical thinking that encourages dialogue across the school disciplines and across social/economic classes prepares students for participation in democracy. They offer specific, concrete strategies for addressing a variety of issues related to authority, religion, gender, race, media, sports, entertainment, class and poverty, capitalism and socialism, and equality and justice. The goal is to develop individuals who can examine their own beliefs, those of their own and other groups, and those of their nation, and can do so with respect and understanding for others values. Book Features: Underscores the necessity of moral commitment in the use of critical thinking. Offers assistance for handling controversial issues that many teachers find unsettling. Proposes a way for students and teachers to work together across the disciplines. “Brooks and Noddings offer a timely and inspirational guide for teaching critical thinking in American schools. With deep roots in American philosophy and traditions, this book inspires us to teach students to question authority while fostering meaningful conversations about the difficult issues confronting our nation. This book offers a recipe for nurturing the next generation of caring and critical democratic citizens.” —Andrew Fiala, professor, California State University, Fresno “Chock-full of contemporary and historical examples, this book offers educators myriad examples of how to help students learn to talk with and listen to others and to understand the fullness of our collective humanity.” —Suzanne M. Wilson, University of Connecticut

Download or read book Teaching Controversial Issues in the Classroom written by Paula Cowan and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-02-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thorough exploration of the issues in teaching controversial issues in classroom, drawing on international case studies sharing teachers' and pupils' experiences.

Download or read book The Case for Contention written by Jonathan Zimmerman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the fights about the teaching of evolution to the details of sex education, it may seem like American schools are hotbeds of controversy. But as Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson show in this insightful book, it is precisely because such topics are so inflammatory outside school walls that they are so commonly avoided within them. And this, they argue, is a tremendous disservice to our students. Armed with a detailed history of the development of American educational policy and norms and a clear philosophical analysis of the value of contention in public discourse, they show that one of the best things American schools should do is face controversial topics dead on, right in their classrooms. Zimmerman and Robertson highlight an aspect of American politics that we know all too well: We are terrible at having informed, reasonable debates. We opt instead to hurl insults and accusations at one another or, worse, sit in silence and privately ridicule the other side. Wouldn’t an educational system that focuses on how to have such debates in civil and mutually respectful ways improve our public culture and help us overcome the political impasses that plague us today? To realize such a system, the authors argue that we need to not only better prepare our educators for the teaching of hot-button issues, but also provide them the professional autonomy and legal protection to do so. And we need to know exactly what constitutes a controversy, which is itself a controversial issue. The existence of climate change, for instance, should not be subject to discussion in schools: scientists overwhelmingly agree that it exists. How we prioritize it against other needs, such as economic growth, however—that is worth a debate. With clarity and common-sense wisdom, Zimmerman and Robertson show that our squeamishness over controversy in the classroom has left our students woefully underserved as future citizens. But they also show that we can fix it: if we all just agree to disagree, in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Download or read book Can I Teach That written by Suzanne Linder and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-07-11 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can I Teach That? Negotiating Taboo Language and Controversial Topics in the Language Arts Classroom is a collection of stories, strategies, advice, and documents collected for teachers who are using or plan to use materials or implement policies they know may be controversial. It is for any teacher dedicated to engaging their students in the complex, challenging, and rewarding activities of reading and writing, for any teacher committed to speaking honestly with students. For any teacher, period. Because when we decide to work with young people, when we commit to sharing books and ideas that engage their hearts and minds, when we strive to get adolescents to think critically and write honestly, we open ourselves up to suspicion and critique from someone, somewhere, no matter how above reproach we feel our materials and strategies are. Few language arts teachers will experience a full-blown challenge to the content of their curriculum, but many may self-censor or suffer through awkward and challenging conversations with colleagues, administrators, parents, and other members of their community. This book is for those times when teachers are called on to defend and legitimize their use of controversial material in their classroom––material that they know reflects students’ reality, even as it makes adults uncomfortable and fearful about their inability to protect children from that very reality.

Download or read book Teaching Controversial Issues written by and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The teaching of controversial issues—those issues which have sparked a prolonged public debate or dispute, and usually, concerns matters of conflicting opinions or points of view—is a necessary and important aspect of any civics education program in the discipline of social studies. Despite this necessity and importance, research shows that teachers face many obstacles and challenges when teaching controversial issues. These obstacles include lack of training and time, fear of losing control, lack of community and legal support, the polarization of politics, access to the internet and social media, and, finally, teacher disclosure. The purpose of this thesis was to better understand these obstacles while also looking at research that shows how these obstacles can be overcome through the use of best practices. Research shows what training teachers need to receive, how they can gather community and legal support as well as how to create a safe and inclusive classroom environment. Lastly, research supports the teaching of controversial issues through the use of discussion, especially the use of deliberation, seminars, and role-plays."--Leaf 4.

Download or read book Philosophy of Education written by William Hare and published by Brush Education. This book was released on 2013-11-04 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revised and updated with 25 new essays, the fourth edition of this bestselling collection brings together more than 30 leaders in the field of educational theory. An engaging exploration of the ideas and trends shaping education in today's classrooms, Philosophy of Education includes topics on high-stakes testing, consumerism in education, and social justice issues in the classroom. How can we teach students moral values while avoiding indoctrination? How should a teacher deal with controversial issues in the classroom? What role should standards play in education, and who develops those standards? And why is the link between theory and practice in the classroom important in the first place? Philosophy of Education provides students, teachers, and administrators with a lively and accessible introduction to the central debates and issues in education today.

Download or read book Controversial Issues in the Classroom written by National Education Association of the United States and published by . This book was released on 1961 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Handbook on Teaching Social Issues written by Ronald W. Evans and published by IAP. This book was released on 2021-05-01 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues, 2nd edition, provides teachers and teacher educators with a comprehensive guide to teaching social issues in the classroom. This second edition re-frames the teaching of social issues with a dedicated emphasis on issues of social justice. It raises the potential for a new and stronger focus on social issues instruction in schools. Contributors include many of the leading experts in the field of social studies education. Issues-centered social studies is an approach to teaching history, government, geography, economics and other subject related courses through a focus on persistent social issues. The emphasis is on problematic questions that need to be addressed and investigated in-depth to increase social understanding, active participation, and social progress. Questions or issues may address problems of the past, present, or future, and involve disagreement over facts, definitions, values, and beliefs arising in the study of any of the social studies disciplines, or other aspects of human affairs. The authors and editor believe that this approach should be at the heart of social studies instruction in schools. ENDORSEMENTS "At a time when even the world’s most stable democracies are backsliding towards autocratic rule, Ronald Evans has pulled together an essential guide for teachers who want to do something about it. The 2nd edition of the Handbook on Teaching Social Issues is a brilliant and timely collection that should be the constant companion for teachers across the disciplines." Joel Westheimer University Research Chair in Democracy and Education University of Ottawa "The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues (2nd edition) is a fantastic resource for teachers, teacher educators, and professional development specialists who are interested in ensuring that social issues are at the center of the curriculum. The chapters are focused on the most important contemporary thinking about what social issues are, why they are so important for young people to learn about, and what research indicates are the most effective pedagogical approaches. The wide-ranging theoretical and practical expertise of the editor and all of the chapter authors account for why this handbook makes such an exceptional contribution to our understanding of how and why the social issues approach is so important and stimulating." Diana Hess Dean, UW-Madison School of Education Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair of Education "Democracy, both as a form of governance and a reservoir of principles and practices, faces an existential threat. The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues is a perfectly-timed and wonderfully engaging exploration of what lies at the heart of social studies curriculum: social inquiry for democratic life. The authors provide conceptual frames, classroom strategies and deep insights about the complex and utterly crucial work of education for democratic citizenship. Education like that conceptualized and described in this volume is a curative so needed at this critical moment. Ron Evans and his colleagues have delivered, assembling an outstanding set of contributions to the field. The Handbook underscores John Dewey's now-haunting invocation that democracy must be renewed with each generation and an education worthy of its name is the handmaiden of democratic rebirth." William Gaudelli Dean and Professor Lehigh University "This volume is so timely and relevant for democratic education. Instead of retreating to separate ideological corners, the authors in this handbook invite us to engage in deliberative discourse that requires civic reasoning and often requires us to meet in a place that serves us all." Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor Emerita Department of Curriculum & Instruction University of Wisconsin President, National Academy of Education Fellow, AERA, AAAS, and Hagler Institute @ Texas A&M "At the heart of our divisive political and social climate is the need to understand and provide clarity over polarizing concepts. Historically, confusion and resistance has hindered the nation's growth as a democratic nation. Typically, the most vulnerable in our society has suffered the most from our unwillingness to reconceptualize society. The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues, 2nd edition, is a good step in helping social studies educators, students, and laypersons realize a new society that focuses on equity. With over 30 chapters, Ronald Evans and his colleagues' centered inquiry, critical thinking, controversy, and action to challenge ideologies and connect social studies to student's lives and the real world. The first edition helped me as a young social studies teacher; I am excited to use the 2nd edition with my teacher education students!" LaGarrett King Isabella Wade Lyda and Paul Lyda Professor of Education Founding Director, CARTER Center for K-12 Black history education University of Missouri "Ronald Evans has curated a collection of informative contributions that will serve as an indispensable resource for social studies educators committed to engaging their students in the thoughtful examination of social issues. The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues, 2nd edition, articulates the historical, definitional, and conceptual foundations of social issues education. It offers clear presentations of general guidelines for unit planning, discussion methods, and assessment. It identifies specific teaching strategies, resources, and sample lessons for investigating a range of persistent and contemporary social issues on the elementary, middle, and secondary levels through the social studies disciplines. Updated with perspectives on education for social justice that have emerged since the first edition, this edition effectively situates social issues education in the contemporary sociopolitical milieu. The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues, is a timely, accessible, and practical guide to involving students in a vital facet of citizenship in a democracy." William G. Wraga, Professor Dean’s Office Mary Frances Early College of Education University of Georgia "The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues, 2nd edition is a long-awaited, welcome, and timely volume. It is apparent that the foundational tenets of the first edition have served social studies professionals well over the past 25 years, given the growth of social issues scholarship showcased in this new edition. Notable is the re-framing and presentation here of scholarship through a social justice lens. I appreciate the offering of unique tools on an array of specific, critical topics that fill gaps in our pedagogical content knowledge. This volume will sit right alongside my dog-eared 1996 edition and fortify many methods courses, theses, and dissertations to come. Sincere thanks to the editor and authors for what I am certain will be an enduring, catalyzing contribution." Nancy C. Patterson Professor of Education Social Studies Content Area Coordinator Bowling Green State University "The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues is a tool that every informed social studies educator should have in their instructional repertoire. Helping students understand how to investigate and take action against problems is essential to developing a better world. The articles in this handbook provide explanations and reasonings behind issues-centered education as well as strategies to employ at every age level of learning. I look forward to using this edition with the K-12 social studies teachers in my district in order to better prepare our students for future learning and living." Kelli Hutt, Social Studies Curriculum Facilitator Dallas Center-Grimes CSD Grimes, Iowa "Ron Evans has chosen an appropriate time to create a companion publication to the first Handbook on Teaching Social Issues published in 1996. During the last few years, social studies teachers have been confronted by student inquiries on a plethora of historical and contemporary issues that implores for the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach to the teaching of anthropology, economics, geography, government, history, sociology, and psychology in order for students to make sense of the world around them and develop their own voices. This demands a student centered focus in the classroom where problematic questions must be addressed and investigated in depth in order to increase social understanding and active participation toward social progress. This volume provides crucial upgrades to the original handbook including a greater emphasis on teaching issues in the elementary grades, the inclusion of issues pertaining to human rights, genocide and sustainability to be addressed in the secondary grades, and addressing issues related to disabilities." Mark Previte, Associate Professor of Secondary Education University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown Chair, NCSS Issues Centered Education Community

Download or read book Troublemakers written by Carla Shalaby and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A radical educator's paradigm-shifting inquiry into the accepted, normal demands of school, as illuminated by moving portraits of four young "problem children" In this dazzling debut, Carla Shalaby, a former elementary school teacher, explores the everyday lives of four young "troublemakers," challenging the ways we identify and understand so-called problem children. Time and again, we make seemingly endless efforts to moderate, punish, and even medicate our children, when we should instead be concerned with transforming the very nature of our institutions, systems, and structures, large and small. Through delicately crafted portraits of these memorable children—Zora, Lucas, Sean, and Marcus—Troublemakers allows us to see school through the eyes of those who know firsthand what it means to be labeled a problem. From Zora's proud individuality to Marcus's open willfulness, from Sean's struggle with authority to Lucas's tenacious imagination, comes profound insight—for educators and parents alike—into how schools engender, exclude, and then try to erase trouble, right along with the young people accused of making it. And although the harsh disciplining of adolescent behavior has been called out as part of a school-to-prison pipeline, the children we meet in these pages demonstrate how a child's path to excessive punishment and exclusion in fact begins at a much younger age. Shalaby's empathetic, discerning, and elegant prose gives us a deeply textured look at what noncompliance signals about the environments we require students to adapt to in our schools. Both urgent and timely, this paradigm-shifting book challenges our typical expectations for young children and with principled affection reveals how these demands—despite good intentions—work to undermine the pursuit of a free and just society.

Download or read book Reign of Error written by Diane Ravitch and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-08-26 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, former U.S. assistant secretary of education, an incisive, comprehensive look at today’s American school system that argues against those who claim it is broken and beyond repair; an impassioned but reasoned call to stop the privatization movement that is draining students and funding from our public schools. In a chapter-by-chapter breakdown she puts forth a plan for what can be done to preserve and improve our public schools. She makes clear what is right about U.S. education, how policy makers are failing to address the root causes of educational failure, and how we can fix it.

Download or read book Teaching Controversial Issues in the Classroom written by Sara Awan and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The project addressed the problem of instructors struggling to teach and discuss controversial issues in their classrooms. Through the literature review, a variety of practices and strategies presented a means for productively exploring volatile and passionately felt topics in the classroom without endangering or offending other students. Overall, the literature regarding the instruction of controversial issues is very limited, but from the available resources that exist, the handbook is a compilation of mini-lessons and suggested resources. The mini-lessons in the handbook comprise of literature based teaching methods, other handbooks, and literature suggestions by social studies researchers. The focus of the research regarding teaching controversial issues was based on the sever need for the discussion of controversial issues in the lower grades like middle and high school. In addition to providing resources, the literature consistently revealed many of the shortcomings of the topic.