Navigating Multiple Perspectives in discussing Controversial topics: Boundary Crossing in the Classroom

Multiperspectivity in the classroom is both applauded and problematized, yet its learning potential remains, to some extent, inexplicit. Drawing on boundary crossing theory, this study aims to explicate the learning potential of discussing controversial topics (e.g., discrimination, organ donation) in the classroom from multiple perspectives. Cross-case analyses of interviews and classroom observations of eleven experienced teachers lead to distinguishing academic and personal approaches to multiperspectivity. When a teacher’s approach was not aligned with their students’ approach to multiperspectivity the learning potential of multiperspectivity became limited. We postulate that both approaches have strengths and weaknesses and that navigating between an academic and a personal approach is most conducive to fostering learning through multiperspectivity

Discussing controversial issues in the classroom: Exploring students' safety perceptions and their willingness to participate*

Discussing controversial issues is an important means to support secondary school students' democratic citizenship. Using questionnaires, we investigated how students' (N = 284) willingness to participate in such discussions is associated with their safety perceptions (identity threat, classroom opinion climate, teacher interpersonal behavior) and personality traits (extraversion). We used the controversial Dutch tradition of Black Pete as a case. Exploratory network analysis showed that students’ willingness to participate increased when they experienced identity threat. Our findings suggest that teachers can encourage student participation in discussions about controversial issues by creating a safe classroom environment

Teachers stepping up their game in the face of extreme statements: A qualitative analysis of educational friction when teaching sensitive topics

Friction in the classroom may create useful tension for teachers when they attempt to discuss sensitive topics as part of democratic learning. Due to the openness and indeterminacy of these topics, students can experience what it is like to be (political) subjects in a diverse society and become aware of other people’s subjectness in a charged classroom. To better understand how to handle educational friction in the classroom, we observed and interviewed nine Dutch expert teachers and analyzed the empirical data by using our Educational Friction Modelling Framework as a heuristic lens. This study shows how teachers allowed extreme statements and used the subsequent friction during their lessons, challenged and provoked their students, made room for their pupils in several ways to enhance their participation, and made a distinction between rationality and emotions in the classroom. We argue that our framework sheds light on what charges the classroom and contributes to the further development of contained risk-taking as part of democratic education

A Pedadogy of De-Polarisation for Education, From Cold to Hot Topics

Young people across Europe are suffering from multiple crises. They are confronted with a war in the Ukraine, a climate crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Next to these there is an increasing social crisis. In well-functioning democracies crises are solved by dialogue between different stakeholders, but there is suggestion that the trust that some parts of society have in authorities is eroding. Teachers are experiencing how societal polarisation is becoming prominent in the classroom and often is fuelled by social media used for spreading misinformation and fake new

Brokers of multiperspectivity in history education in post-conflict societies

In post-conflict societies marked by strong negative stereotypes or delicate and sometimes unstable political contexts, teaching both knowledge and understanding of conflicting historical narratives has become a matter of educational urgency. Conversely, a framework for effective teacher training that prepares teachers to activate and facilitate the exchange of multiple perspectives has yet to be identified. This qualitative and exploratory research aims to answer the questions, what boundaries do expert teacher trainers believe that teachers in post-conflict societies encounter when brokering multiple perspectives in the classroom? Which teaching or training methods can teacher trainers use to help teachers reduce the impact of these boundaries? To advance the use of multiperspectivity in post-conflict history education and enhance history-teacher training design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve experts in history-teacher training to answer these questions. The expert’s statements were openly and axially coded using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory as an analytical lens. Identifying ten personal or environmental boundaries to brokering multiperspectivity in the classroom, and two training approaches to help teachers establish continuity between their multiperspectivity training and day-to-day teaching practices. Further providing actionable recommendations for educators, non-governmental organizations, and educational scientists

How conflicting perspectives lead a history teacher to epistemic, epistemological, moral and temporal switching: a case study of teaching about the holocaust in the Netherlands

This case study reports on a history teacher in a multicultural classroom in the Netherlands who is confronted with students’ conflicting perspectives on a sensitive topic, namely the Holocaust. We have used Dialogical Self Theory in combination with the historical multiperspectivity framework to make sense of the teacher’s considerations and instructional responses. Informed by interactions between three inner-voices (i.e. history teacher, caring teacher, and political citizen) and two inner-other voices (i.e. Jews as victims and ‘the resistant boys’), the teacher switches from a temporal focus on the past to a temporal focus on the present. The epistemic, epistemological, and moral consequences of this temporal switching are discussed

Verdraagzaamheid in het secundair onderwijs

Het bevorderen van tolerantie wordt internationaal gezien als een belangrijk onderwijsdoel. In het onderwijs worden echter verschillende opvattingen over tolerantie door elkaar heen gebruikt, waardoor het begrip haar analytische en educatieve kracht verliest. In dit artikel gaan we specifiek in op de klassieke conceptualisering van tolerantie die verwijst naar iets verdragen waar men bezwaar tegen heeft, en daarmee verschilt van een momenteel dominante herinterpretatie van het begrip (tolerantie als appreciatie). Door middel van een heranalyse van reeds verzamelde gegevens onder middelbare scholieren laten we zien dat tolerantie als verdraagzaamheid voor jongeren moeilijk is, maar niet onmogelijk. We vinden daarbij verschillen tussen leerniveaus die samenhangen met multiculturalistische overtuigingen, waarbij VWO’ers gemiddeld toleranter zijn dan VMBO’ers. Op basis van de literatuur beschrijven we vervolgens een didactiek van tolerantie als verdraagzaamheid, waarbij het leren omgaan met onoverbrugbare verschillen centraal staat