Sweden is a multicultural society which means that there is a lot of pupils in Swedish schools with a background as refugees and with experiences from potentially traumatic and horrible events in their home countries. This study works with two different theories, trigger warning and pragmatism. Trigger warning explains why it could be necessary to hide or protect student from some specific topics or material and pragmatism says that it is educationally successful to use the pupils experiences in the classroom. Contemporary global conflicts, such as the ones that the pupils are coming from, could be a useful subject to teach about in social studies according to the Swedish curriculum. Given this circumstances, this study seeks to examine if it would be educationally and morally appropriate to use this potentially traumatic and sensitive experiences as a method of teaching. According to pragmatism, it would be. However, according to trigger warning, it could be relevant to protect the pupils from this kinds of subjects in school and in the classroom. Therefore, this study contains a tug of war between the two different theories and I interviewed pupils who has moved or has a family who has moved from warzones as refugees about this matter. A core in this study is to take the pupils perspective and examine what good, or bad, that comes out if a teacher in social studies wants to teach about the conflicts that the pupils has a connection to. The result shows that it in fact would be educationally successful even if these subjects are special and a teacher should always think about the circumstances and the methods they are using. In the theoretical tug of war pragmatism comes out as a winner, by trigger warnings could be relevant in some cases.

Body Worlds is a traveling exhibition of plastinated human cadavers that offers the general public an opportunity to experience the human body in a unique way. It has been met with controversy and awe; public reactions and responses have been mixed. This case study research explored visitor responses to this controversial science exhibition, and examined the meaning visitors made of their experience. Specifically, the following research questions directed this study: Within the context of the Body Worlds exhibition: (a) What meaning did visitors make and how did they respond to the exhibits? (b) What tensions and issues arose for visitors? and (c) What did this type of exhibition convey about the changing role of science centres and the nature of their exhibitions? The primary sources of data for this study were 46 semi-structured interviews with visitors to the exhibition, observation notes, and 10 comment books including approximately 20 000 comments. Data suggested that the personal, physical, and sociocultural contexts (Falk & Dierking, 2000) contributed to visitor meaning meaning-making. The use of plastinated human cadavers within this exhibition raised ethical and moral questions and controversies about body procurement, use of human cadavers in display, representations of the bodies, and issues related to the sanctity of life. The tensions and issues identified by visitors demonstrated that messages (intended or unintended) located within Body Worlds were critically examined by visitors and called into question. Finally, data from this study suggested that an interdisciplinary approach to the presentation of science served to enhance accessibility for the viewer. This exhibition demonstrated that visitors responded positively and made personal connections when the arts, spirituality, edutainment, issues, and a combination of historical and contemporary museum practices were used to present science.

Body Worlds is a traveling exhibition of plastinated human cadavers that offers the general public an opportunity to experience the human body in a unique way. It has been met with controversy and awe; public reactions and responses have been mixed. This case study research explored visitor responses to this controversial science exhibition, and examined the meaning visitors made of their experience. Specifically, the following research questions directed this study: Within the context of the Body Worlds exhibition: (a) What meaning did visitors make and how did they respond to the exhibits? (b) What tensions and issues arose for visitors? and (c) What did this type of exhibition convey about the changing role of science centres and the nature of their exhibitions? The primary sources of data for this study were 46 semi-structured interviews with visitors to the exhibition, observation notes, and 10 comment books including approximately 20 000 comments. Data suggested that the personal, physical, and sociocultural contexts (Falk & Dierking, 2000) contributed to visitor meaning meaning-making. The use of plastinated human cadavers within this exhibition raised ethical and moral questions and controversies about body procurement, use of human cadavers in display, representations of the bodies, and issues related to the sanctity of life. The tensions and issues identified by visitors demonstrated that messages (intended or unintended) located within Body Worlds were critically examined by visitors and called into question. Finally, data from this study suggested that an interdisciplinary approach to the presentation of science served to enhance accessibility for the viewer. This exhibition demonstrated that visitors responded positively and made personal connections when the arts, spirituality, edutainment, issues, and a combination of historical and contemporary museum practices were used to present science.

This qualitative study investigates how the views of student leaders (and some of their staff advisors) illuminate the discussion in the broader literature around issues of student leadership, conflict, diversity and social justice in secondary schools. Eighteen one-hour, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve student leaders and six teachers from six provinces across Canada. This study contributes to educational research by considering the ways student leaders (rather than adult administrators) can impact social justice. While students envision their leadership role in terms of social justice with the goals of inclusion and societal change in mind, the present schooling structure, established expectations and strategies chosen for initiatives often hinder the realization of such a role. Schools also seem to avoid local controversial issues by encouraging student leaders to focus on international concerns. This study explores opportunities for schools to address equity issues through reconceptualizing student leadership and its goals.

The primary goal with this literature review was to develop a better understanding of controversial issues within school education. We formulated three questions that would help us reach this goal: What constitutes controversial issues?? How can they be assessed from a didactic point of view? Why can controversial issues be important to discuss? Our working method consisted of systematically searching for relevant literature by using a combination of selected keywords. The collected literature was evaluated and selected to be included in the results based on relevancy, The results demonstrated that controversial issues are often complex in nature, polarizing and very present in social science-education. Furthermore, there are several didactic models and tools that can be used to deal with controversial issues in educational settings. As such, our analysis shows that controversial issues may be integrated in teaching practices. This will increase the possibility for students to develop both knowledge and skills to deal with controversial questions. In social science education, teaching about controversial political issues prepares students to participate in a democratic society, enabling them to engage in discussion on controversial topics in productive and sensitive ways.

This study aims to examine how upper secondary English teachers work with foundationalvalues and controversial topics through fictional works in order to discuss the function of valuesand the civic mission in the EFL-classroom. The study was conducted using a qualitativeapproach through semi structured interviews, interviewing seven currently active uppersecondary English teachers. To structure the data from the interviews a thematic analysis wasapplied, and the theoretical approaches used for analysing the data were transformativepotential and narrative imagination.The results of this study show that the participants have an interest in using fictional workscontaining controversial issues for discussing foundational values in the classroom. The studyalso shows that there are both common challenges and advantages of teaching controversialissues through fiction. All participants had similar opinions about the advantages which werethe emergence of expanding worldviews and perspectives among pupils. The challengesmentioned among the participants were: reading in a second language, giving the pupils enoughpre-knowledge and knowing which position to take as a teacher during discussions aboutcontroversial topics. Noticeable differences in the teachers’ opinions were due to their lengthof work experience. Finally, the civic mission in the EFL-classroom could be distinguished inthe teachers’ arguments of why they implement fictional works with controversial topics intheir teaching.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This qualitative study sought to explore reasons why social studies teachers chose to teach controversial issues and counternarratives in their classroom in an era where doing so is dangerous for teachers and their job security, and how they go about doing so in their classrooms. The theoretical framework of this study encompassed the notion that the five selected teachers embodied and practiced elements of Foucauldian parrhēsía, which is teaching the truth despite the risk of doing so, despite not having explicit knowledge of this particular philosophy, and utilized counternarratives and controversial issues as a means of challenging dominant social norms to bring about a more just and equitable society. The existing literature suggests that their pre-service teacher education provided little influence on their decisions, despite the positive historical, personal, and democratic outcomes from teaching a curriculum exploring controversial issues and counternarratives. Five teachers were recommended for this study due to their reputations for teaching controversial issues and counternarratives in their social studies classrooms. After interviewing and observing these teachers, a number of interesting findings came to light, including a list of best practices for how to teach controversial issues in the classroom, reasons why the teachers taught controversial issues in the classroom, structures of support and barriers for teaching a critical social studies curriculum, and differences between those who believed they taught controversial issues in their classroom but did not, and those who actually did.

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Vi har undersökt hur samhällskunskapslärare på gymnasiet förhåller sig till kontroversiella frågor. Ämnesområdet valdes med tanke på samhällskunskapens potential för diskussioner i frågor som kan upplevas som kontroversiella. Syftet blev därför att undersöka hur samhällskunskapslärare upplever och hanterar kontroversiella frågor. Såväl skolmyndigheter som forskningsfältet är positivt inställda till kontroversiella frågor eftersom de kan utveckla elevers demokratiska kompetens samt hjälper läraren att göra ämnesinnehållet mer levande. Samtidigt existerar en aktuell debatt om i vilken utsträckning lärare uppmuntrar till diskussioner eller ifall de undviker att lyfta och bemöta kontroversiella frågor i klassrummet.        För att uppfylla ovan nämnda syfte utforskade vi först ämnesområdet genom relevant internationell och nationell forskning. Detta för att därefter klargöra begreppsdefinitionen och presentera våra teoretiska glasögon i form av de deliberativa och agonistiska samtalsteorierna. Resultatet visade att lärarnas tolkning av kontroversiella frågor låg nära de vi identifierat från forskningsfältet och att lärarna vi intervjuat generellt är positivt inställda till att arbeta med kontroversiella frågor. Vårt empiriska material för att utforska ämnesområdet består av sex kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju olika samhällskunskapslärare.

The aim of this study is to examine how social science teachers teach about controversial issues with an emphasis on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The method applied is qualitative semi-structured interviews. The theoretical framework consists of Diana E. Hess four approaches to teach controversial issues, Denial, Privilege, Avoidance and Balance and Itay Pollaks et al. two approaches to teach controversial issues, Sidestepping and Scholastizing. Previous research indicates that teachers avoid addressing controversial issues due to lack of knowledge and concerns about potential disruptions in the classroom. The teaching of the Israel-Palestine conflict is approached cautiously and even though it is done by cautious methods it leads to challenging classroom discussions which are permeated by prejudices and generalizations. Despite these challenges, previous research underscores the importance of teaching controversial issues as a means to develop essential skills, for students to become democratic citizens. The analysis and results indicate that teachers don’t stick to one fixed idea of controversial issues. The challenges the teachers bring up align with previous research, where teachers feel inadequately informed about the Israel-Palestine conflict and that students form prejudiced conclusions about the conflict. The potential of teaching about the Israel-Palestine conflict lies in students developing skills such as societal awareness, critical thinking and tolerance. The results demonstrated that teachers adopt various approaches but the majority of the teachers used Hess balanced and Pollaks et.al scholastizing approach. A new approach was found in the analysis that was not addressed in the theoretical framework, a relational approach.