This article addresses the ongoing debate over which criteria should determine what teachers ought to teach as controversial. I argue that this debate rests on false assumptions. It is a mistake to assume that (1) there should be a context-transcending criterion, (2) such a criterion can be prescribed "a priori" and…

This paper examines data from a statewide survey of K-12 social studies teachers in one midwestern state regarding their perceptions on the ways in which they integrate issues of race and justice into their classes, or their reasons for not doing so in their role as Instructional Gatekeeper.

Democratic discussion in the classroom has been viewed as a way to increase consensus, however the spread of false and misleading information through social media and influencers can make classroom discussions problematic. This electronic text analysis study highlights the social media site of Quora and posts related to the Gulf War. Posts related…

As conservatives ban the teaching of Black history and critical understandings of race across the country, Black teachers are turning again to fugitive pedagogies, or subversive ways of teaching, to counter anti-blackness and imagine the world anew. This study drew on data from interviews, classroom observations, and student focus groups to…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop an understanding of how the lived experiences of white educators following the murder of George Floyd in the spring of 2020 impacted their understanding of racism and how this understanding, if at all, helped them work to disrupt racism in schools. Literature analyzed revealed how white…

Public schools are currently a source of major political conflict, specifically with regard to issues related to LGBT representation in the curriculum. We report on a large nationally representative survey of American households focusing on their views on what LGBT topics are and should be taught, and what LGBT-themed books should be assigned and…

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 climate crisis is a growing concern for many people, especially those who are of college age, making it an important and pressing issue to explore in honors courses. Eco-Art: Using Art to Reconcile with the Climate Crisis, a University of New Mexico (UNM) Honors College course, integrates the disciplines of art and environmental justice to…

The main purpose of this study is to examine the epistemological beliefs and informal reasoning of science and social studies teachers about COVID-19, which is a controversial socioscientific issue. Qualitative research, specifically phenomenological design, was used in the study. During the data collection process, teachers' epistemological…

In this theoretically informed article, we introduce and define Fugitive Pedagogy as a framework for action, building on Givens's biography of Carter G. Woodson. We first introduce our current education context and outline the need for a Fugitive Pedagogy approach. We describe how we developed Fugitive Pedagogy as a theoretical and analytical…

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…

There are many things that can be done to educate young people about historical monuments in schools. At the same time, however, we argue that there is little warrant for optimism concerning the educational potential of classroom instruction given the institutional constraints under which school teachers must labour. For these reasons, we think it…

Last year, shortly after the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, it seemed as if the world had finally opened their eyes to the everyday reality and fears of Black America. And yet, just after the anniversary of these murders, state legislation is seen in the headlines of various news sites attacking Critical Race Theory…

The conflict between acceptance and disapproval of evolution has led to obstacles in its teaching and learning. Other difficulties, such as both teachers' and students' alternative perceptions, student maturity in the face of learning this complicated topic, and teachers' gaps in evolution knowledge, add to the difficulties in teaching and…

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…