Controversy and Diversity in the Classroom

Overview

This entry has four main sections. The first explains why high-quality discussions of controversial political issues require ideological diversity, both in the society outside of school and within classrooms. The second section addresses the importance of ideological diversity among students; it describes how most classrooms possess a fair degree of ideological diversity and, if they do not, how the teacher can purposely insert competing views. The third section focuses on the diversity of students' intrapersonal beliefs—that is, the lack of internal coherence regarding views on controversial political issues. The final section addresses the role that teachers' views on controversial political issues play in issues discussions, particularly when these differ from students' views.

Diversity within the Wider Society

Democratic societies are, by definition, rife with controversial political issues. This is because in democracies there are always differing opinions about how to solve problems that arise in the community. Controversial [Page 451]political issues are open questions—those for which there are multiple and competing answers. Much of the work of democratic participation and governance is focused on deliberating and deciding what the public (e.g., school community, a zoning board, a city government, a state, or the national government) should do about political issues. For example, in the United States, disputes over the extent to which the government should regulate the private lives of citizens have often led to public controversies—over safety laws, prohibition of drugs and alcohol, regulation of marriages, requirements to obtain health insurance, and so on.

Issues that are considered controversial change from open to closed (and vice versa) over time. For example, at one point the question of whether women in the United States should have the right to vote was an open issue and was taught as such in the school curriculum. This has long since been a closed issue for the overwhelming majority of U.S. residents, and therefore no longer serves as the basis for effective controversial issues discussion. Other issues related to gender and public policy, however, continue to inspire passionate differences of opinion, and are likely to continue to do so in the future. Teachers need to be aware of the issues that are in a state of flux in contemporary society so they can decide which ones merit inclusion in the curriculum as open issues, and which should be treated as closed.

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