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...Home > Resources > Inclusive Classroom > Methods Introduction > Controversial Issues

Teaching Controversial Issues

Teaching controversial topics is an especially difficult aspect of being an instructor. Sometimes you leave the classroom feeling exhausted and wondering if anything was really accomplished. On better days, you still leave exhausted but knowing that you have accomplished something very special—helping students learn to engage the tough questions and issues they will face in their lives. The resources on this page will hopefully help more of the days be good ones.

• Teaching Controversial Issues
  Written by Ed Neal from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this resource provides a number of ideas and suggestions for working with controversial issues in the classroom.
  
  
• Controversial Issues in the Classroom
  This article by Angela M. Harwood and Carole L. Hahn is available from the ERIC Clearinghouse (ED327453) and provides a number of suggestions for preparing students for class discussions on controversial issues. (Downloads as a PDF file.)
  
  
• Teaching Idea: Cooperative Controversies
  Outlines an approach that encourages mutual understanding among students, even if the topics are controversial. From the Fall 1991 issue of Teaching Concerns, a newsletter for faculty and teaching assistants at the University of Virginia.
  
  
• Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom
  This resource by Lee Warren from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University provides suggestions on how to get students engaged in discussing controversial topics and what to do to make the engagement work.

 

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