This paper focuses on the primary problem of the public, as advanced in "The Public and its Problems," which Dewey described as the need to improve "methods of debate, discussion, and persuasion" for the purposes of "perfecting the process of inquiry" (Dewey, 1927/1954, p. 208). I first situate these modes of…

This article is a response to Michael Hand's critique in this issue of my response to his use of the epistemic criterion as the sole means for identifying whether or not an issue should be identified as controversial. I argue that he has misunderstood my intention in suggesting that I was seeking to replace the epistemic criterion. Rather my…

A controversy rages over the question of how should controversial topics be taught. Recent work has advanced the "epistemic criterion" as the resolution to this controversy. According to the epistemic criterion, a matter should be taught as controversial when contrary views can be entertained on the matter without the views being…

Readers are expected to construct balanced mental representations of socioscientific issues discussed across controversial documents. However, readers tend to be biased toward documents that present belief-consistent perspectives and tend to refute documents that argue against their stance (text-belief consistency effect). Published studies on…

This qualitative case study explored the implementation of critical citizenship education in an eighth grade social studies classroom. This research was guided by Johnson and Morris' (2010) framework for studying critical citizenship education and took place in a public charter school located in a capital city in the southeastern United States.…

The aim of this study was to examine the quality of the written argument of pre-service science teachers on certain socio-scientific issues (SSI) and their opinions about the process of something. The study group consisted of 26 pre-service science teachers (18 females and 8 males) studying in their 3rd year of a state university. The purposeful…

This study is aimed at exploring how teachers make curricular-instructional decisions regarding teaching contemporary controversial public issues in Taiwan (e.g., national identity, sovereignty, and ethnic issues). Using a case study design, this study documents how six social studies teachers make curricular decisions about whether to teach…

This study analysed questionnaire responses from 309 history teachers who come from nine European countries and Israel. The open-ended questions explored their experiences of teaching Sensitive historical Issues (SI) from joint social psychological and history didactics perspectives. First data was analysed hermeneutically, it was then interpreted…

Based on a cross-national study conducted in Northern Ireland, England, and the United States, this article expands current literature by examining 4 teacher educators' efforts to prepare preservice teachers to teach controversial issues. Teaching controversial issues, strongly advocated for decades, is both urgent and risky, especially in divided…

The present research aimed to analyse the perception of science teachers on socio-scientific issues and teaching them. The study group of the research consists of 22 science teachers (14 females, 8 males) working in 7 secondary schools in Sinop, who were determined according to the convenience sampling method. The case study as one of the…

How can young people make use of digital tools and methods to get to grips with the risks and dilemmas arising out of contemporary science, technology and society relations? This chapter addresses the forms of agency enabled through a set of techniques for exploring and visualizing controversial technoscientific issues on the web. Given the…

Historians collect and verify evidence and then interpret it in an acceptable way. A general consensus is that history does not present us with an absolute truth -- the most we can hope for is historians' reliable, evidentially based interpretations of the historical topic. History not viewed as interpretation has long raised alarm bells in…

It has been argued that to remain relevant in today's society, Extension must expand its role to provide public issues education. We conducted a web-based survey to determine whether Extension agents in Florida were prepared to deal with contentious issues. Survey respondents identified issues affecting their clientele, levels of frequency with…

The co authors of this article write that their own roles as teacher educators, student advocates, and social movement workers provide motivation for engaging in critical conversations to make sense of education in the era of Trump. They wonder how they should engage pedagogically with their contemporary political movement deep in the heart of…

In this article, Cindy Coe describes how after wrapping up her eighth grade "To Kill a Mockingbird" unit, one of her students came to her about derogatory terms being used around school and expressed that she wanted to do something about it in light of their recent unit. In a meeting with the principal, the student shared her frustration…