Cross cultural case studies of teaching controversial issues

This book explores controversial issue education in a variety of international contexts. Controversial issues constitute a normative anchor within citizenship education curriculum and the degree to which they are subjected to reflection has profound implications for the viability and vibrancy of democratic societies. Discussing controversial issues can overlap with ideological battles outside the school, or within it, but it trumps those given the essential mandate for students to deliberate about the common good, take a stand on issues, and explore ideas with multiple sources and perspectives. Every society privileges, in some form, the topics available for inquiry and discussion within their schools. Curriculum guidelines, exams, textbooks, colleagues, administrators, standards, teacher preparation, and local communities all influence teacher decisions and weigh upon the extent to which this normative mandate is realized. Yet, research about these decisions is typically tied to a singular context. In response, this edited book draws upon the work of an international team of authors and cinches together single-case and context-specific studies on the pathways and challenges to teaching controversial issues and offers transferable grounded theoretical insights for educational policymakers, lawmakers, and curricularists as they work to strengthen democratic citizenship education. This book features chapters which explore controversial issue education in Australia, China, Ghana, Kenya, Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States.