"I Am Unyielding and Unkind": Intolerance, Neutrality, and Controversial Issue Discussions in an English Classroom

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Abstract

This paper explores how one English teacher thinks about neutrality and addressing incidents of intolerance within controversial issue discussions. Drawing on a survey and three rounds of semi-structured interviews, this research contributes to scholarship by highlighting ways in which neutrality interacts with intolerant speech in our current polarized political climate. In particular, I examine how this teacher’s political views—opposite of his school community’s—play a role in his approach to controversial issue discussions, and analyze his practices and sensemaking regarding neutrality, intolerance, and contentiousness within the political climate at the local and national levels.

Author

• Rebecca Cooper Geller, University of Georgia