The literature on teaching controversial issues offers a framework to help teachers make appropriate judgments about which topics are worthy of deliberation and what information is reasonable to consider in a classroom. Wayne Journell describes four criteria for evaluating the openness of issues, explains why the behavioral criterion is neither…

Critical race theory has recently been blamed for causing harmful outcomes. Conservative activists are believed to be distorting this theory in order to ban it. The campaign to ban critical race theory has affected many schools across the United States. In some cases, school personnel have resigned because of the way some groups have responded to…

Faculty development programs in higher education frequently focus on educational practices advancing diversity, inclusion, and student success. They also usually address how to handle tense class disruptions arising over controversial topics. What faculty development programs usually fail to tackle, however, are fundamental questions of belonging.…

The teaching of key scientific topics such as evolution are imperative for scientific literacy, but educators face pressure to eliminate or downplay these topics due to perceived controversy. Although teachers usually bear the burden of ensuring that these topics are taught appropriately, some of this responsibility must also fall upon…

School-based sex education has been a controversial issue in the province of Ontario, Canada. When an updated sex education curriculum was introduced by the provincial government in 2015, the media heavily covered negative reactions to the curriculum, and one distinct genre of reporting became modestly popular: the fact-checking article. These…

The United States still has one of the lowest evolution acceptance rates in the world. Biology educators have been diligent in their methods to increase evolution acceptance and knowledge, with much success. However, misconceptions still arise through education, textbooks, and even social and religious settings that may influence our citizens' low…

We are surrounded by controversy--politics, religion, diets, and even science are all up for debate in our 24/7 world of social media and the internet. With this controversy comes a lot of misinformation and competition with what our students might otherwise be learning in our classrooms. I know this intimately, since I teach fitness and nutrition…

Entropy is a concept with an extreme controversy which many scientists have been trying to explain. Some of the approaches employed in its definition contradict each other, which made it extremely difficult for high school and college students to understand. Boltzmann was the first person who brought a statistical explanation to entropy and…

The exceptionalism of abortion in public health education, due to social stigma, politicization, and lack of training, contributes to misinformation, policies unjustified by rigorous science, lack of access to person-centered health care, and systemic pregnancy-related inequities. Now that abortion access has vanished for large portions of the…

Students possess alternative conceptions of many science topics, and these conceptions can act as obstacles for learning scientific concepts. In the field of biology education, students' alternative conceptions of evolution have been widely investigated. However, there is little research on how teachers diagnose and deal with these alternative…

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a legal framework that originated in the 1970s intending to challenge legal scholarship to consider the historical and present impact and causes of structural inequality and racism. CRT is an academic lens primarily used at the doctoral level and is not a defined curriculum or something outlined in the Kansas State…

Cochlear implants (CIs) have revolutionized the field of audiology, providing a life-changing solution for children with bilateral profound hearing loss. Expanding criteria has allowed children with significant unilateral hearing loss (UHL) to benefit from this technology as well. The practice is not without controversy, however. While we have…

Through the lens of transformative learning theory, this qualitative study examines how pre-service teachers (PSTs) in a teacher education program in rural Appalachia shared their perspectives on their preparation to work with diverse students. It examines how their lived experiences and their teacher education program impacted their approach to…

The theory of evolution is the central combing theory that brings together all the tenets of biology that bring about a solid understanding of life. It is also one of the most controversial scientific theories of all time and is widely rejected by about 40% of the general public in the United States. One of the biggest reasons for low evolution…

Recent efforts to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in U.S. public schools have been criticized for fundamentally misunderstanding both CRT and K-12 teaching and teacher education. This paper argues that Anti-CRT fear-mongering in the U.S. is a new face on an old practice, the racist use of public education to sustain White supremacy. Using…