Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE - Universität Bielefeld)
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Teaching Controversial Topics in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ireland: Using Structured Academic Controversy to Develop Multi-Perspectivity in the Learner
Get PDFPurpose: This study had two main objectives: The first was to explore the extent to which a group of University lecturers feel that they are prepared to deal with controversial issues in their classrooms. The second was to elicit their views on a didactic approach known as Structured Academic Controversy (SAC). SAC is a constructivist teaching strategy intended to aid the learner in developing their views on controversial issues and in understanding alternative views with the ultimate aim of locating a compromise position.Method: A qualitative intervention was designed to introduce six university academics from diverse specialisms to SAC by way of reflective engagement with it in the role of learners.Findings: The participants in this study deal with controversial issues frequently and several feel ill-prepared to do so. They identified several challenges associated with the use of SAC. These relate primarily to class size and curricular overload. However, despite the challenges, the participants all recognized the potential value of such approaches in developing multi-perspectivity, critical thinking, listening and negotiating skills in the learner. Future larger-scale, longitudinal studies in a variety of cultural contexts are needed to develop approaches which can facilitate those approaching controversial issues in their classrooms
Discourses of Inclusion and Exclusion in the Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution
Get PDFThis article takes a discourse analytical approach to elements of the 40th commemoration of the Portuguese Revolution, focusing specifically on the absence of themes and participants by groups who were most directly involved in the Revolution, either as actors (the “Captains of Abril”), the retornados (Portuguese nationals “returning” to Portugal in the aftermath of the 1974 coup) and retornados-emigrantes (those who left Africa during this period but went on to live outside Portugal). The analyses center primarily on the speech by Portuguese President Cavaco Silva, given as the official opening of the 40th anniversary of the military coup of 25 April 1974, which brought the authoritarian regime of 48 years to an end. This examination, combined with other speeches of Cavaco Silva, newspaper reports, analyses of the integration of retornados, and a commemorative TV miniseries on the Revolution, provide the evidence for the argument that important voices of the Revolution were muted or silenced in the official commemoration of 2014. Finally, the relevance of actor-centered perspectives on commemoration is laid out for educators
Education for National Belonging: Imposing Borders and Boundaries on Citizenship with Difference
No full textA Grounded Approach to Citizenship Education: Local Interplays Between Government Institutions, Adult Schools, and Community Events in Sacramento, California
Get PDFFollowing a grounded, bottom-up approach to language policy (Blommaert 2009; Canagarajah 2005; McCarty, 2011; Ramanathan, 2005), this paper investigates available resources and discourses of citizenship in Sacramento, California to those situated within the citizenship infrastructure. It analyzes how the discursive framing of local and national educational policies affects prospective citizens and the ways that resources and discourses differ across educational sites. These sites include a government field office, citizenship classes at adult schools and community centers, and a law school-sponsored citizenship fair. This article argues that adult schools and community events introduce their own de facto and de jure policies, in conjunction with top-down governmental policies, that tend to reduce the complexity of naturalization at the expense of full participation. Both top-down and bottom-up educational policies consequently affect prospective citizens’ understanding and enactment of citizenship.
Brokering Identity and Learning Citizenship: Immigration Settlement Organizations and New Chinese Immigrants in Canada
Get PDFThis paper examines citizenship learning and identity construction of new Chinese immigrants in a Canadian immigration settlement organization (ISO). I address the gap between the concept of “settlement” and “citizenship” generated by government-funded ISOs and new immigrants’ actual practices in these programs. I adopt Dorothy Smith’s approach of examining the social organization of people’s everyday lives (Smith 2005) in order to unpack the ruling relations behind the immigrant settlement services and to take the standpoint of Chinese new immigrants. Under this framework, I analyze a Canadian federal government’s funding criteria for ISOs and a settlement program’s annual report to unpack the ruling relations behind the texts. I further conduct in-depth interviews with two Chinese new immigrants in a Canadian ISO to understand the ruling relations behind citizenship learning and brokering activities in Canadian ISOs from the immigrants’ standpoint
Walking Through the Revolution: A Spatial Reading of Literary Echoes
Get PDFThis paper presents an embryo of a literary guide on the Carnation Revolution to be explored for educational historical excursions other than leisure and tourism. We propose a historical trail through the centre of Lisbon, city of the Carnation Revolution, called Walk through the Revolution. The trail aims to reinforce collective memory about the major events that occurred in the early moments leading to the coup. The trail is made up by nine places of rememberance, for which literary excerpts are suggested and which are supported by a digital research procedure. A set of seven fixed and observer-independent categories are used to analyse the literary contents of 23 literary works published up to 2013. These literary works refer to events that happened between the eve of April 25 and May 1, 1974. At the same time, literary descriptions are explored using a spatial approach in order to define the literary geography of the most iconic military actions and popular demonstrations that occurred in Lisbon and the surroundings. The literary geography and the cartography of the historical events are then compared. Data analysis and visualization benefit from the use of standardised and quantitative methods, including basic statistics and geographic information systems
Science and Social Studies Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices about Teaching Controversial Issues: Certain Comparisons
Get PDFThe current study aims to investigate social studies and science teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices associated with controversial issues. The study is a qualitative research based on data collected through interviews and observation. Social studies and Science teachers participated in the current study which was conducted in Kirsehir, a city in the center of Turkey, during the 2012-2013 academic years. Data were collected through classroom observation and interviews with teachers. In this study, teachers\u27 positioning during controversial issues are determined by Kelly\u27s (1986) positioning classification: Exclusive Neutrality, Exclusive Partiality, Neutral Impartiality, and Committed Impartiality. According to results of the research, violence against women, education system, terrorism and nationalism are the leading issues among the controversial issues that both social studies and science teachers listed in Turkey. In relation to their area, social studies teachers stated that the issues such as Kemalism, democracy, military coups, and deep state, which are associated with recent history of Turkey, were among the important controversial issues. Science teachers on the other hand stated issues such as cancer and anti-toxic foods and global warming among the controversial issues in Turkey. Both social studies and science teachers stated that the most frequently encountered problem in discussions was lack of knowledge by students. Whereas social studies teachers stated that their priority goals were particularly to raise active citizens and to set up a democratic classroom environment, science teachers pointed to raising scientifically thinking students and increasing students’ knowledge as their priority goals. During in-class discussions teachers take some positions. The positions stated by the teachers and in-class observations of them conflict. Whereas the teachers stated that they prefer the 4th and 3rd positions, the in-class observations showed that they mainly adopted the 2nd position. Results of observations in social studies classes show that teachers definitely stated their positions about the discussed issue as a priority; they tried to teach the students their positions about the issue; and occasionally about some issues, they told just their positions