Discusses the controversial work of Maurice Sendak, a popular, yet controversial children's author and illustrator. Examines the oral responses of a class of first graders to "We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy," with the purpose of demonstrating that children can act as their own agents in constructing meaning through complex…

Offers a model for a collective strategy that can be used to deal more effectively with problems associated with race relations courses. Presents a multidimensional analysis of the constraints that create problems for race relations instructors and highlights a multidimensional approach to minimizing these problems. Includes references. (CMK)

Explores the resistance faced by minority faculty, both from other faculty and from students, when teaching classes dealing with race and racism. (EV)

Examines whether students engage in biased assimilation during in-class debates. Finds that biased assimilation only occurs when the student is arguing for her or his existing position on an issue. Concludes that, in order to eliminate biased assimilation, teachers should encourage students to debate the opposite position of their preconceived…

When evaluating instructional practices, adolescents (n = 128, ages 14-19) coordinated knowledge of epistemology, fairness, and motivation in their conceptions of procedural justice. Adolescents ranked the fairness and effectiveness of instructional practices differently for controversial and noncontroversial topics. They raised epistemological,…

America has been called "the argument culture," but you would not know it from many social studies classrooms. Despite a longstanding tradition in social studies of teaching controversial issues, all too few of today's classrooms accommodate this kind of intellectual activity. Perhaps it is the pressure of high stakes testing, or the emphasis on…

This study reports on the attitudes towards biotechnology of 905, 15-16 year-old students from 11 Western Australian schools. Students were asked to read 15 statements about biotechnology processes and to draw a line to separate what they considered "acceptable" statements from those they considered "unacceptable". Overall, the…

What is a teacher to do when confronted with a student who says "I understand that theory (e.g., evolution), but I don't believe it"? The purpose of this article is to provide a rationale for answering this question. First we describe the various ways in which the terms "know/knowledge" and "believe/belief" are used and summarize the distinctions…

The "academy" of scholars in United States institutions of higher education generally do not like hearing about genocide in the Americas, especially if it implies or states that this country willingly participated in and benefited from genocidal policies. Well, that about sums up the primary problems that Native scholars have in writing about…

The author recounts a tale about impairment of academic freedom that he experienced while teaching in the MBA program of a respected business school. The management department chair restricted the of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals in a course called "Conflict and Negotiation." The political correctness movement has come full circle when it…

Direct and honest speech has its place, and that place seems not to be at the University of Denver, at least when the speech concerns discrepancies in minority achievement. Richard Lamm's credentials as a scholar and former political leader carried little weight with the chancellor and other administrators at the U of D who adamantly refused to…

This case addresses the events that unfolded after a high school teacher displayed a Confederate flag in the classroom as a visual aid to instruction on the causes and effects of the Civil War. Although the curriculum specifically required students to learn the meaning and use of symbols and provided for the use of the flag, and the principals…

When does abstinence end and sexual activity begin? In previous generations, the continuum of sexual activity was well-defined in the old baseball analogy. Teens, parents, and teachers knew what going to first, second, or third base involved. For the current generation of young people, sex and abstinence are not so well-defined. As parents and…

Teaching nonscience majors topics in biotechnology through case studies is the focus of this research. Our "Biotechnology, Environment, and Related Issues" module, developed within the "Science for All" framework, is aimed at elevating the level of students' scientific and technological literacy and their higher order thinking…

This paper examines the issues on whether Brown really desegregate school. Study shows that many cases of large number of segregated schools still exist today. This was the complexity of addressing this issue that makes teaching Brown a challenge. The 1954 Supreme Court decision--Brown v. Board of Education was the basis of their study for the…