In a multicultural democratic society, the increasing demographic diversity within and across nation-states calls attention to pedagogical knowledge and skills needed to engage students in discussing controversial cultural issues (CCIs). Woven in the intersection of democratic education and multicultural education, this qualitative study sought to…

Background: The "cognitive incongruity model of epistemic beliefs and emotions" states that if students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge (e.g., knowledge as simple and absolute) are incompatible with the epistemic nature of learning materials (e.g., complex and contradictory), cognitive incongruity arises. This, in turn, entails…

This study provides a situated account of a native English-speaking teacher who implements critical literacy in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom at a Korean high school. Teacher interview data and student presentations are analyzed to depict how a third space created by the EFL teacher and his students allowed meaningful and…

Little is known about the conditions that enable teachers to educate others about the troubling issue of gender-based violence. This paper discusses the centrality of "structures for care" for fostering the willingness and capacity of primary school teachers to initiate classroom talk about this sensitive and silenced issue. Drawing on…

Effective sexual health education plays a critical role in adolescent pregnancy and HIV and STI prevention. This article describes the formative research conducted to design, and then pilot-test, SkillFlix®, a streaming video training created to improve educators' skills in delivering sexual health education to youth by modeling Microskills®.…

The events of September 11th occurred twenty years ago this year. The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York and the attack on the Pentagon represented a key moment in history. While the world had experienced multiple terrorist acts previously, this event exposed the vulnerability of civilian populations in major Western countries to attacks…

This paper contributes to the debate about what should be taught as controversial through an application to the sex education classroom, looking specifically at questions of moral controversy. I argue that the debate about controversiality needs to be reframed to be less concerned about identifying a standard definition of controversy and instead…

University social science instructors sometimes encounter student silence or quarrels around culturally contentious subjects. In a culture that promotes distrust around the issues they teach, how do professors perceive and cope with such difficulties? Preliminary research using qualitative interviews with teachers from two different US…

This article unfurls in the aftermath of an event where three first grade children at a reputable progressive elementary school were found playing slavery during school recess. As word caught on, parents ignited into a frenzy: some railed against the teacher, others demanded an answer, while still others believed this was precisely the meaning of…

In educational contexts, including early childhood settings, ableism and racism circulate interdependently to define normalcy and deviance. Book reading offers an important platform for dismantling these interlocking ideologies with young children. In this article, we examine dis/ability and race talk in the context of picture-book reading,…

The present article reports research conducted during 2018 in a secondary school in South Yorkshire, England with a class of 11-12-year-old boys and girls and the class teacher of religious education (RE), in consultation with the head and deputy head of the RE faculty. The focus of the project was on the extent to which existing research findings…

Although the age of the planet, the theory of biological evolution, and climate change are not "scientifically" controversial, students' familial and religious teachings can be perceived to be diametrically opposed to the science curriculum. However, there is a way for teachers to acknowledge alternative views and let students voice them…

Biological evolution stands out as critically important content for K-12 education as it is considered a cornerstone of the biological sciences. Yet, it remains one of the most socially controversial topics related to science education. In this exploratory study, we are seeking to understand the ways elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) use their…

The normative elements underlying efficiency are more complex than generally portrayed and rely upon ethical frameworks that are generally absent from classroom discussions. Most textbooks, for example, ignore the ethical differences between Pareto efficiency (based on voluntary win-win outcomes) and the modern Kaldor-Hicks efficiency used in…

The authors consider the implications of speaking out and remaining silent in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. They reflect on the forms of speech available to and expected of educators and educational anthropologists in order to raise questions about whose voices are heard or ignored in the current public discourse. Drawing…