In this article, the authors argue that one approach to teaching Introduction to Social Problems is to structure the course content around taken-for-granted beliefs that many students have about the social world. In doing so, the authors discuss the social construction of social problems, how sociology differs from common sense, and the importance…

An important debate in the literature on controversial issues concerns how to identify them. This matters for teachers because settled issues should be taught directively and controversial issues should be taught nondirectively. Teachers are professionally accountable for this decision. This article examines the contribution of Michael Hand to the…

The FAIR Education Act (SB 48) was signed into law in California in July of 2011, amending the Education Code by requiring representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons in the social sciences. In this article, the author uses James Banks' model of the Four Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content to suggest ways in which…

While we agree with Cooling's argument from fairness, we argue that Cooling fails to give an adequate account of how fairness can be conceived, particularly because he does not decisively tackle the issues surrounding doing God in a plural context, or the contentious issues of compulsory collective worship and faith schools. In order to explore an…

This set of essays is based on a panel session convened at the 2009 meeting of the Association of American Geographers, which sought to explore the many challenges and pitfalls involved with teaching nationalism as a topic in geography classrooms. The authors offer different but complementary insights into the practical difficulties and potential…

The past decade has seen a resurgence of scholarship on world literature. The best-selling successes of "Great Books" arguments contained in Azar Nafisi's memoir "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and in Dai Sijie's novel "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" seem to mirror, on the popular front, this scholarly return to the question of world…

In the author's research, he has found that there are two key elements of an effective civic education: (1) duty; and (2) voice. In this article, he elaborates on what he means by these terms, but first he notes that--perhaps ironically--neither speaks to the content of a civics curriculum. He believes that it is possible to reach consensus on…

This article is a personal reflection on the challenges, frustrations, and rewards of transforming a traditional face-to-face strategic management course into a blended format. The article describes both the discovery process that leads to a significantly redesigned course and the distillation of that experience into six core questions that can…

Just as people focused on education in the United States call for more content-rich curriculums, elementary schools in many areas have squeezed history and social studies out of their school day. When social studies is taught, it's often characterized by overreliance on a textbook and "covering" isolated facts; extended, engaged reading…

In "Doing God in education", Trevor Cooling aims to defeat what might be called the "marginalising" view of the place of religion in education. I am sympathetic to this aim; but I think Cooling conflates two different arguments, predicated on two different concepts marked by the term "world-view", and that only one of the arguments is plausible.…

As the twentieth anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda approaches, Mark Gudgel argues that we should face the challenges posed by teaching about Rwanda. Drawing on his experience as a history teacher in the US, his experience researching and supporting others' classrooms in the US and UK, his training in Holocaust education and his knowledge…

The experience of 9/11 prompted a transformation in one secondary teacher's approach to teaching controversial subjects based on the relevance to today's students. Soon after that fateful day, this teacher found a purpose and rationale for developing a very demanding curriculum on 9/11, and relates how his teaching unit has evolved by expanding…

This essay presents educational principles of Mahatma Gandhi, specifically principles of character education, as a model for strengthening non-violence in students. Its major concern is to show that Gandhi's ideal of non-violent character education is important for university teaching in disciplines including religious studies, and that Gandhi…

This Research Commentary builds on a 2-stage literature review to argue that there are 4 obstacles to making a sociopolitical turn in mathematics education that would allow researchers to talk about race and ethnicity in ways that take both identity and power seriously: (a) the marginalization of discussions of race and ethnicity; (b) the…

Adults in the United States have been migrating to ideologically homogenous communities, a phenomenon that researchers have called "the big sort." Thus, the need for young Americans to engage in civil discussion of controversial issues has never been greater. Public schools are an ideal place to undo the big sort because controversial issues fit…