Full Description
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.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Preparing Preservice Teachers for Controversial Issues
Chapter 1: Mark Drummond: Controversial Issues as a Path toward Reconciliation in Northern Ireland
Chapter 2: What Marks' Students Learned: Theory and Practice in Teaching Controversial Issues
Chapter 3: Paula Barstow: A Pragmatic and Safe Approach to Controversy in Northern Ireland
Chapter 4: What Paula's Students Learned
Chapter 5: Ian Shepherd: Teaching Sensitive and Controversial Issues through Historical Inquiry in England
Chapter 6: What Ian's Students Learned
Chapter 7: Liz Simmons: Teaching Controversial Issues through Democratic Discussion in the U.S. Midwest
Chapter 8: What Liz's Students Learned
Conclusions, Hard Questions, and Recommendations
References
About the Author
