Social Studies Teachers’ Opinions and Practices Regarding Teaching Controversial Issues

Abstract

In today's globalised world, many issues have become controversial. These controversial issues affect society and the individuals who form them. It is inevitable that these topics are brought into social studies classrooms, because this learning area is profoundly related to society. Social studies teachers' behaviours, attitudes, and professional knowledge are crucial in teaching controversial issues. The goal of this study was to investigate social studies teachers' opinions and practices regarding teaching controversial issues in Turkey. The study utilised a mixed method in which both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. The quantitative data for this study were collected from 646 social studies teachers in different cities in Turkey. The qualitative data were collected through observation of eight social studies teachers who were working in schools situated in areas at four different socioeconomic levels in the Kirsehir province. The content analysis method was used to analyse the qualitative data. The results indicated that there are differences between the teachers' opinions and their practices in teaching controversial issues. The study also found that teachers are faced with academic, professional, and emotional challenges in teaching controversial issues.

PRE-SERVICE HISTORY TEACHERS' EDUCATION for INSTRUCTION of CONTROVERSIAL and SENSITIVE ISSUES

“…Abdulhamit, the Sunni-Alawi conflict, situations related to the private lives of the Ottoman sultans such as alcohol-drinking sultans, The Lausanne Peace Treaty, Sultan Vahdettin and fratricide practice have been mentioned in this respect. The results of some studies (Demir and Pişmek, 2018;Demircioğlu, 2016;Kuş, 2015) on controversial and sensitive issues in our country support these findings obtained from our research.…”

Educación ciudadana, patrimonio y memoria en la enseñanza de la historia: estudio de caso e investigación-acción en la formación inicial del profesorado de secundaria

“…Independientemente del posicionamiento adoptado sobre si el docente debe o no dar su opinión, ha quedado clara la importancia que el profesorado en formación inicial otorga a las estrategias deliberativas. Estos resultados convergen con los de otros estudios donde se han puesto de manifiesto los beneficios de las estrategias deliberativas y toma de decisiones y del análisis de temáticas controversiales a la hora de educar en valores democráticos (Canal, Costa y Santisteban, 2012, Kuş, 2015, Delgado-Algarra y Estepa, 2018. En el contexto andaluz, estos resultados resultan especialmente relevantes.…”

Controversial issues: A mixed study with middle school students

“…It can be stated that these two conditions affect this result. Moreover, a controversial issue may be related to both natural and social sciences (Ersoy, 2013;Kuş, 2015). However, controversial issues often arise in social studies class (Clabough, Philpott, McConkey & Turner, 2011).…”