This article describes the process taken by members of a seminar course on radical geography in a primarily quantitative geography department. This course was taught during tumultuous times necessitating the need to explore radical topics and abstract conceptualizations of space and place. We offer our experiences and lessons learned while…

The marginalization of social studies has led to many questions about how elementary teachers include social studies in their curriculum. Using a survey distributed to Texas teachers, this study explores the instructional strategies, integration emphasis, and content area instructional time utilized in the elementary classroom. Through a…

This study examined the learning trajectory of five US humanities teachers when navigating learning to teach the difficult history of school desegregation within a context of a six-month inquiry-based professional development. The research questions were: What do teachers frame as problems when teaching difficult histories? How do they…

Dealing with controversial issues is one of the most important tasks teachers perform. In this article, the author presents a few core concepts and research findings that are essential for understanding what teaching controversial issues is all about and why it is so important to develop capability in this methodology.

Constructive controversies, where team members discuss their different opinions openly and politely, can stimulate interprofessional learning (IPL): the learning that occurs in the interactions between two or more different professions. However, in science-based controversies where members compete to be the expert learning becomes complicated.…

Scholars have analyzed debates about controversial faculty speech inside and outside of the classroom, but none have paid close attention to the facet of academic freedom related to professors' decisions about daily teaching methods. This omission, along with obstacles to enacting pedagogical norms, has caused the scholarly community to overlook…

Most of the history education research that addresses controversial issues suggests that disputes arising in the history classroom are rooted in students' diverse identities that relate differently to history. Therefore, a history education that wants to ease tensions must try both to make these different identities and their relations to history…

How should educators deal with conspiracy theories in the classroom, if at all? Do the epistemic deficiencies of some conspiracy theories make them easy prey for debunking? Can the moral and political dangers that certain conspiracy theories pose to democratic societies justify educators avoiding addressing conspiracy theories in the classroom?…

Controversial issues are often regarded as abundant in history education. Most topics can be regarded as controversial in one way or another. The purpose of this article is to analyse the way history teachers in Swedish lower secondary schools relate controversial issues to a particular view of the nature of the subject of history. By analysing…

This forum article focuses on the instruction of an interpersonal communication course. Interpersonal communication courses are widely included in undergraduate communication curriculum and can be fundamental to student development. The authors provide foundational material and various content areas generally included in such a course. The authors…

Some state legislatures have introduced a rash of bills designed to control how K-12 teachers discuss so-called 'divisive issues,' such as racism, sexism, and privilege. This legislation has prompted substantial news coverage on the impact of these laws. Sidelined in this discourse are the perspectives of teachers. This mixed methods study seeks…

This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: the representation of North African and Middle Eastern Jewry, aka "Mizrahim." Applying Nordgren's and Johansson's conceptualisation, the article explores the changes in this subject from the establishment of Israel to the present day. The…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the importance of vaccination and public attitudes toward it firmly to the fore. However, vaccine hesitancy and refusal remain significant barriers to global uptake, with post-pandemic declines in routine immunization contributing to disease outbreaks worldwide. Research shows that education plays a vital role in…

When do teachers need to deal with sociopolitical issues impartially and when are they justified in taking a stand? In the academic literature, attempts to answer this question have centered on the relative merits of four criteria of "controversial issues": the epistemic criterion, the behavioral criterion, the politically authentic…

Despite the scientific consensus, climate change continues to be socially and politically controversial. Consequently, teachers may worry about accusations of political indoctrination if they teach climate change in their classrooms. Research shows that many teachers are using the 'teaching the controversy' approach to teach climate change,…