Exploring controversial and difficult events and issues with young children can be challenging. The Civil Rights Movement is an abstract, perhaps remote, issue for young children today. However, it is an important part of our country's history and a theme worthy of study. This article suggests ways to use photographs to explore this mature subject…

As the U.S. population becomes more culturally, linguistically, and racially/ethnically diverse, many tout the advantages of offering courses at the nation's colleges and universities that focus on diversity issues. Several researchers have argued that exposure to diversity topics, such as racial and gender inequality, makes college and…

Prompted by the passage of Alabama House Bill 56, I organized the museum studies course I taught for Auburn University at Montgomery in the 2013 spring semester around an exhibition on immigration. The course offered the opportunity to engage students, faculty, and the community in discussion of an important, timely, and controversial topic.…

Too often, the authors assert, discussion of controversial issues in high school classrooms is channeled through the teacher, rather than engaging students in discussion with one another. Teachers fear that students won't know how to talk to one another productively about issues, or that they'll end up in shouting matches. But when…

Environmental education owes its very existence to a particular interpretation of reality. The author's purpose in this article is to examine critically the "selected fictions" on which that view of reality is based--to examine the ways in which perceptions of environmental problems and issues are "conditioned by our position in…

Although a growing body of research suggests that participation in intergroup dialogue is associated with a wide variety of positive outcomes, much less research has examined the experiences and outcomes of those who facilitate these dialogues. Therefore, using a modified grounded theory approach, we sought to examine the experiences of 10…

This new report from the Center for Educational Equity offers insights into the resources and practices necessary to prepare students for civic participation in accordance with students' constitutional rights. The pilot study on which the report is based documented major disparities in learning opportunities among the study schools, including in…

Critically thinking about scientific data to form opinions on controversial issues in environmental health is crucial in undergraduate education in the field. An assignment paired with a "flipped" classroom activity was designed to impart knowledge on how to search the primary literature and extract data that can help formulate a point…

This critical case study investigated the experiences of six White preservice teachers as they learned about race and racism during the first semester of an urban-focused teacher preparation program. The author identified two broad themes of "transgressive White racial knowledge" and "negotiated White racial knowledge" to…

Purpose: This study inquires into the ways that three preservice teachers enrolled in one English education program at a state namesake university in the Southeastern part of USA, oriented to uncertainty when interacting with one another as they discussed potentially challenging/uncomfortable topics. Design/methodology/approach: The tools of…

Succeeding theories and empirical investigations have often been built over conceptual understanding to develop talent education. Opportunities provided by society are crucial at every point in the talent-development process. Abilities differ and can vary among boys and girls. Although they have some responsibility for their own growth and…

This study introduces a critical response pedagogy (CRP), an arts-based critical technique to facilitate meaningful dialogue in focus group settings, to secondary school science education students to engage them in discussion about sediment and chemical load in their local river basin community. Using a holistic single case design, twenty-two 11th…

It has long been established that an effective citizenship education in a multicultural society must incorporate some exposure to a variety of views on different topics. However, the ability and willingness to deal with difference relating to controversial matters of national identity, narrative and conflict vary. This is not least the case in the…

Though overlooked or at best implicit in "A Crucible Moment," interdisciplinary studies has much to contribute to civic learning for democratic engagement. The article organizes those contributions into the report's categories of knowledge, values, and skills. It concludes with an example of how techniques used in interdisciplinary…

Museums in the past have been static institutions, exhibiting their collections as public displays. Today, the public has come to expect more from these institutions, seeing them as safe havens where conversations can begin. As reproductive rights have moved to the forefront of political and social debate, dialogue seems to be a step in the right…