"The More Valuable Thing": Prioritizing Conceptions of Safety in Controversial Issue Discussions

• In Event: Politics and/of Participation in Social Studies Education

Abstract

This study explores how U.S. public high school social studies teachers think about and experience controversial issue discussions amidst political polarization, with attention to safe classroom climates. Drawing on three rounds of semi-structured interviews conducted between 2017 and 2019, we contribute to literature on “controversial identity issues” by exploring a tension between an environment in which all students can voice their opinions and one in which all students feel safe and valued. Results include five issues giving rise to this tension, the primacy of openness as a pedagogical goal, and how teachers are anticipating and responding to this tension. Our findings complicate what an inclusive, open classroom climate means for teachers and students within today’s broader political climate.

Authors

• Rebecca Cooper Geller, University of Georgia

• Isabella Perez