This study explores the views of Indonesian junior high school pre-service science teachers (PSTs) towards teaching based on socio-scientific issues (SSIs). Questionnaires were analyzed qualitatively and descriptively. The PSTs (N=62) acknowledged that student competencies ranging from personal to socially relevant skills as well as character…

A common practice amongst scientists is to evaluate the connections between evidence and claims about natural and human-induced phenomena. Teacher education coursework may improve understanding of this important activity and facilitate teachers to implement evidential thinking approaches into their future science teaching. Instructional scaffolds…

This study aims to determine the role of worldview perspective on science students' decision-making process by a socio-scientific issue-based instruction through an integrated Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Understanding the decision-making process in complex themed learning is one of the most important…

This study explored relationships between Internet-specific justification beliefs and source evaluation and corroboration during Web search. Fifty university students completed the Internet-Specific Epistemic Justification Inventory (ISEJ), which targeted beliefs concerning the justification of Internet-based knowledge claims about natural science…

This essay explores the institutionalized master narrative of public institutions and how the mandated policies enacted by public institutions impact social studies teachers when they are delivering instruction to their students. A socio-transformative constructivist framework guides the essay in order to affirm that knowledge is socially…

This paper examines yard signs as a site for public pedagogy that engages two concurrent, and comorbid, public health crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and racism. Specifically, I reflect on how yard signs responding to the George Floyd murder in my own Minneapolis neighborhood exist during a kairotic moment; as myself and my students are increasingly…

Content warnings--notices to students that class material may evoke their past traumas--have become entangled in (over)heated debates about the role of free speech on campus. Critics denounce content warnings as silencing tools intended to promote censorship, preclude discussion of difficult topics or punish professors who hold unpopular views.…

Christine Sleeter wrote this essay in response to the topic "Even Laureates Were Beginners Once: Lessons Learned Along the Way," which was the title of the Laureate Panel at the Kappa Delta Pi Convocation in October 2017.

As the U.S. and other nations grapple with the boundaries of inclusion at a time of increasing political polarization, teachers face quandaries about how to address immigration in classrooms. Although some educators may avoid immigration as a discussion topic, others enthusiastically choose it precisely because of its relevance. Further…

This qualitative case study sought to understand the extent to which Japanese high school social studies teachers grapple with controversial issues in their classrooms. Situated within a curricular-instructional gatekeeping framework, we conducted semi-structured interviews with eight respondents of varying backgrounds and schools in Okayama,…

Teaching through controversial, politically charged issues is promoted in Anglo-American democracies as a key means for cultivating active citizenry and democratic values. However, the challenges of discussing controversial issues in the classroom may differ in younger, deeply divided democracies that lack common ground and institutional…

How should we teach controversial issues? And which issues should we teach as controversies? In this paper, I argue that educators should heed what I call a 'psychological condition' in their practical efforts to address these questions. In defending this claim, I engage with the various decision criteria that have been advanced in the…

This is a response to Ásgeir Tryggvason's argument that the deliberative critique of the agonistic approach to citizenship education is based on a misreading of the main concepts in agonistic theory--a misreading that has important implications for any attempt to bring closer agonism and deliberation in citizenship education. My aim in this…

In today's educational landscape, social studies classes are characterized by controversial issues (CIs) that teachers handle differently using various ideologies. These CIs have become more and more popular, particularly in heterogeneous communities. The actual classroom practices for teaching social studies courses are unclear in the context of…

Is good reasoning in the moral domain different from its counterpart in non-moral domains? What counts as a good moral argument, or a valid moral assertion or claim? What does 'validity' mean in the moral realm? Lots of ink has been spilled on these and related questions in the past few decades, but not much has been settled. In what follows I…