Abstract
Understanding controversial issues is important for students to develop as future democratically participating citizens. However, addressing them can be challenging for teachers and there is a clear need for increased knowledge about how to deal with them in teaching. This article examines the strategies applied by civics teachers when teaching Swedish pupils of grades 7–9. We focus particularly on civics teachers as civics is an important subject in Swedish schools, in which there is a strong tradition of dealing with current issues and social problems. We analyse their approaches to four common strategies for teaching controversial issues identified from previous research (avoidance, neutrality, norm mediation and provocation) using data obtained from a survey of 73 civics teachers, six interviews and two observational case studies. The findings are discussed in terms of three educational functions formulated by Biesta: qualification, socialisation and subjectification. They indicate that teachers adopt varying strategies that seem most appropriate according to their professional judgement in specific situations, and the educational functions are usually closely intertwined in practical teaching.
Published Version
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