This paper critically examines the spatial context of discussing controversial issues in educational settings. It begins by evaluating the concept of safe spaces, addressing significant critiques such as the illusion of safety, essentialism, censorship, and the negativity of learning. Next, civility is considered as an alternative, highlighting…

Teaching controversial issues is particularly challenging in today's world of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news. This article explores how critical thinking can be embedded in such discussions using the street smarts critical thinking model. The study focuses on the contentious use of the poison 1080 as a case study, systematically…

Until the beginning of the 21st century, the Tulsa Race Massacre was omitted mainly from the social studies curriculum and state-mandated standards in the United States. However, the featured lesson provides a valuable springboard to explore the historical perspectives and injustices against the Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 31, 1921.…

Drawing upon three individual interviews with each of five students enrolled in a first-year writing (FYW) course I observed throughout a semester, this dissertation explores how a group of socially privileged students emotionally experienced, interpreted, and responded to discourses of differences encountered in their FYW course. Contributing to…

In Georgia, the recent "Protect Students First Act," or GA HB 1084, states that curricula and training programs should refrain from judging others based on race or advocate for divisive concepts such as "One race is inherently superior to another race," or that "the United States of America is fundamentally racist."…

This study explores the practical implications of the paradox of moral education, focusing on how Swedish social study teachers (civics, geography, history, and religious education) navigate conflicting responsibilities to convey values and facilitate critical thinking when addressing controversial issues in their classrooms. Through qualitative…

This paper is a reflective response to Tena Thau's suggestion -- in her 2024 piece 'Moral Philosophy as War Propaganda' -- that philosophy has little to teach about the war in Gaza (and, by extension, similar cases of widespread, horrific human suffering). I first reconstruct one of the arguments that Thau makes in her piece. I then show that her…

Socially relevant geoscience topics may be difficult for students to learn. For example, connecting hydraulic fracturing to Midwestern US earthquake swarms and using the fossil record to infer past Earth environments may challenge students because of their prior exposures to nonscientific explanations. Sociocognitive theoretical perspectives based…

The community of inquiry (COI) framework is a theoretical and practical model for creating deep, meaningful online learning experiences through three essential and interconnected elements: teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. Asynchronous online discussions (AODs) are the typical communication medium in a COI; therein, a…

The identification and the evaluation of arguments are fundamental elements of critical thinking. However, the explicit promotion of these elements is virtually absent from university science courses. Much of the reason for this is that in most universities, across nearly all disciplines, instructors are required to see the conceptual content…

This essay advocates the use of "unresolved" speech assignments in introductory public speaking instruction. Unresolved speeches work to decenter persuasion in the speech class by asking students to critically explore the landscape of arguments surrounding controversial topics and issue questions without making the turn to opinion giving…

A well-written argumentative essay requires a thorough analysis of the topic with sufficient supporting evidence. However, obtaining information on the topic, summarizing the reading materials, and then presenting them in the form of an argumentative essay can be a challenging task, especially for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners.…

The rise of anti-immigration arguments within the European Union (EU) poses significant challenges to our democratic existence. As such, the promotion of critical thinking (CT) for the development of a multicultural citizenship education has been underlined. Recent research also shows a close connection between emotions and cognition with positive…

While the teaching of controversial issues has generally been supported by schools and education scholars, new laws and public outcry have impacted whether and how controversial issues are taught. Calls to ban or limit teaching of controversial issues have largely been spurred by conservative parents, policymakers, and political groups. Some…

Critical thinking ability is a very important basic ability in learning mathematics. In the era of technological advances and digitalization, a comprehensive learning approach is needed that accommodates critical thinking skills. The controversial problem-based multimodal approach with ethnomathematics is seen as being able to improve this…