Thinking Controversially: The Psychological Condition for Teaching Controversial Issues

Abstract

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 controversial issues literature: the epistemic criterion, behavioral criterion, political criterion and politically authentic criterion. My argument is that the supporters of these various criteria have focused too closely on the socio‐political and epistemic qualities of controversial issues in deriving their controversial issues pedagogies and have thereby overlooked the necessary subjective conditions for teaching controversial issues. If our pedagogical efforts to cultivate students’ reason by means of controversial issues are to be successful, then we must understand controversy as fundamentally a psychological phenomenon consisting in an intellectual tension in the minds of students. In the final pages, I conclude by recommending several forms of directive teaching that promise to be instrumental for creating such intellectual tension.

Teaching Controversial Issues: A Pragmatic View of the Criterion Debate

“…However, there are also other important contributions to the debate (see e.g. Gregory, ; Tillson, , ; Yacek, ; Warnick and Smith, ). I will include several of these contributions later in the discussion and use their insights to make the case for situationism.…”

What is actually true? Approaches to teaching conspiracy theories and alternative narratives in history lessons

“…In the prior literature, there is widespread consensus as to the crucial role played by the teacher when approaching controversial issues (Oulton et al, 2004a(Oulton et al, , 2004bPhilpott et al, 2011;Yacek, 2018), but is there such a thing as an appropriate or ideal teacher role? By examining our classroom observations and the transcripts of the teachers' interviews, it became evident that it is important to adopt an appreciative and inquisitive, yet not judgemental, role that allows for the students' views and arguments to be in focus.…”

“…Yet, can conspiracy theories be considered to represent a controversial issue at all and, if so, how should we deal with them? According to the so-called "epistemic criteria" (Dearden, 1981;Hand, 2008;Tillson, 2017), which have gained significant influence in educational research in recent years (Petrovic, 2016;Zigler, 2016;Yacek, 2018), a topic cannot be considered controversial if the relevant argument conflicts with the overall (epistemic-scientific) consensus and rationality.…”

“…(Hand & Levinson, 2012, p. 618) A strictly scientific approach, as suggested by the epistemic criteria, would probably exclude conspiracy theories from being taught as a controversial issue (see also Hardee & McFaden, 2016;Zigler, 2016). However, critics of the epistemic criteria have challenged the notion that objective standards exist by which all arguments can be evaluated (Petrovic, 2013;Cooling, 2014;Bertucio, 2016;Shudak & Anders, 2016;Yacek, 2018). The criteria ignore the fact that a controversial issue is not subject to static standards but rather to changing narratives, different (historical) assumptions and varying interpretations, including existential reasons and desires as "aspects of being" (Bertucio, 2016).…”

Is Freire Incoherent? Reconciling Directiveness and Dialogue in Freirean Pedagogy

“…As I will show below, Freire takes a broader stance on directive teaching so as to allow directiveness even on matters that are controversial. For a defence of directive teaching in the context of epistemically controversial issues, see Yacek, .…”