Based on queer critical literacies framework, this study describes an intervention that aimed to help preservice teachers identify and deconstruct heteronormative discourse in Turkish social and educational contexts. Through a local documentary that narrates the experiences of a Turkish transgender individual, preservice teachers critique the…

Controversial issues require students to analyse information critically, discuss different perspectives, and develop views on important questions. The problem-based learning model (PBL) allows learners to gain insights from various perspectives and apply the knowledge acquired to different situations. This mixed-method study aims to examine the…

In recent decades, socioscientific issues (SSI) have been emerging from the interrelationship between science, technology, and society. For example, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, related decisions, like whether we need to ask people to use facemasks, is an SSI question being discussed internationally with no right or wrong answer. Controversial…

Turkey is the only country that has twice lost cases concerning the violation of parents' freedom to ensure their children an education in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This article firstly seeks to present these court cases. It then moves to the official responses…

In this study, it is aimed to determine the metaphorical perceptions of prospective science, social studies and classroom teachers towards socioscientific issues. The study was carried out with third and fourth class prospective science (f: 41), classroom (f: 129), and social studies (f: 73) teachers of the faculty of education at a state…

The purpose of the research was to determine the opinions of middle school students about the inclusion of controversial issues in social studies course. In this mixed methods study, an explanatory design was used, and the participants involved middle school students studying in Kirsehir, Osmaniye, and Diyarbakir provinces of Turkey during the…

The current study aims to investigate how Turkish English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers understand the cultural component in language classes and the extent to which they feel to have opportunities to raise cultural awareness. The views on and approaches to cultural issues of ten English language instructors teaching at the tertiary level…

The present study aimed to determine the views of classroom teachers on the inclusion or exclusion of current issues in classroom instruction, to investigate these views based on the definition of current issues, the methods and techniques employed in the instruction of current issues, the analysis of the instruction, and the positive and negative…

The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of pre-service classroom teachers about academic controversy, from the cooperative learning methods, implemented in social studies teaching course. Using the action research pattern from the qualitative research approaches, the study group for the research comprised 42 preservice teachers in third…

Human rights are necessary and compulsory for all people irrespective of language, religion, race, gender or sect. Learning about these rights begins within family and continues in school formally. Human rights education is necessary for values of human rights to pass from theory to practice. The rights given to people or groups with certain…

As the school National Science Curriculum in Turkey includes topics such as human reproduction, hormonal growth and adolescent health, elementary school science teachers (ESTs) are required to teach sexuality-related topics to their students. However, studies have shown that teachers in Turkey, like their counterparts in many other countries, have…

Post-method era has been hailed in second language teaching, although a few practitioners have been able to use the tenets of critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy aims to raise sociopolitical issues to emancipate both teachers and learners from power-centric ideas. The practical use of critical pedagogy has been the participatory approach that…

This study aims to examine primary and secondary education curricula in terms of controversial issues such as human rights, terrorism, sexuality, etc. determined by the participation of teachers, academicians and education union representatives beforehand. This study was designed as a document analysis which is one of the qualitative research…

This study aims to motivate researchers, teachers and learners to utilize critical social research methodology in the field of second language learning and teaching in which neoliberalism and neocolonialism have been profoundly embedded and overwhelmingly dominant. Therefore, critical reflection (CR), participatory action (PAR) and emancipatory…

In today's educational landscape, social studies classes are characterized by controversial issues (CIs) that teachers handle differently using various ideologies. These CIs have become more and more popular, particularly in heterogeneous communities. The actual classroom practices for teaching social studies courses are unclear in the context of…