Sex and sexuality are complex, multi-faceted topics. Sexuality educators and practitioners often face challenging dilemmas with few ethical decision-making models available. While there are professional codes of ethics for sex educators, there are no practical models to inform an educator's ethical decision-making in professional situations. This…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to discover topics in history education in Estonia that are perceived to be controversial, and to analyse how teachers' epistemic cognition is reflected in the teaching of issues perceived to be controversial. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative research based on group and individual interviews with 12…

This research aimed at improving sexual education in a society where it is held as a taboo. The study explored parents' and teachers' views and practices related to sex education. Thirty individual interviews were conducted among twenty parents and ten teachers using a convenient sampling approach. We developed the "Views & Practices in…

Many libraries and archives have recently released statements about harmful material in their collections and the descriptions of these collections. However, these types of statements are not required for any professional accreditation or membership, nor are there specific guidelines to follow. This study collected and analyzed statements from…

Educating students for democratic life requires teachers to make difficult judgment calls about whether controversial issues are appropriate for "directive teaching" (i.e., teaching that attempts to persuade students to adopt a particular view about the thing being taught). To help educators make these decisions, theorists have proposed…

In Georgia, the recent "Protect Students First Act," or GA HB 1084, states that curricula and training programs should refrain from judging others based on race or advocate for divisive concepts such as "One race is inherently superior to another race," or that "the United States of America is fundamentally racist."…

Trauma studies scholars emphasize naming or acknowledging trauma to promote healing. In response to the recent political and curricular whiplash in the Commonwealth of Virginia, this paper investigates the prevalence and nature of traumagenic events in Virginia's social studies standards. Data analysis suggests that conceptual insights from trauma…

This study explores the practical implications of the paradox of moral education, focusing on how Swedish social study teachers (civics, geography, history, and religious education) navigate conflicting responsibilities to convey values and facilitate critical thinking when addressing controversial issues in their classrooms. Through qualitative…

This article draws from primary and secondary historical sources such as public policy documents, speeches, and media reports to trace attempts made by the Kentucky legislature to ban controversial topics in public school curriculum--evolution in 1922 and critical race theory in 2022. Kingdon's multiple streams framework (MSF) serves as the model…

At this juncture, I find myself orientating towards the unruliness of doing arts-based praxis-oriented research with primary school-aged children (aged 5-12) on the topic of LGBTQI+ lives. As I prepare for what feel like disruptive research directions that will chart what many still consider to be forbidden territory with children, I attempt to…

Dialogic talk affords students opportunities to share ideas and co-construct knowledge while developing various literacy skills such as perspective taking, text comprehension, and argumentative reasoning. In this study, we examine how seventh- and eighth-grade students in four classrooms discuss a controversial topic about changing a National…

Controversial scientific issues, or socioscientific issues (SSIs), demand the consideration of more than scientific content when constructing decisions. The Justification for Knowing framework (JFK) was developed to categorize the information sources drawn upon when making SSI decisions within the academic domain of natural sciences. These…

Although teachers make frequent decisions about whether and how to address difficult topics, they typically do so with minimal support. This article reports a case study of an inquiry community of 20 educators who engaged in practitioner inquiry as professional learning for addressing the difficult topics that they teach within their curricula or…

This study explores the instructional implications of using podcasts framed by a critical media literacy framework in a high school social justice classroom. This 10-week, critical media-framed study examines how eight 16-18-year-old students, taught synchronously on Zoom, engaged in weekly podcast-based lesson activities, selecting podcast…

From a Pedagogy of Death perspective, this study focuses on education for a more conscious life that includes an awareness of death. The objective was to ascertain in depth the views of adolescents on teaching about death in their particular context. The methodology adopted was qualitative and phenomenological. Seven focus groups were organised…