Controversial Issues in Education: Organizing Teacher Seminar to Bridge Theory and Practice

The research group Research and Teaching on Controversial Issues was established in 2022. Through various projects, the group has collaborated with teachers in lower and upper secondary schools to develop research-based teaching materials that can be used across different school subjects. Among other things, the group has received funding to explore how teachers can address conspiracy theories in the classroom.

"It's important to us that our research on controversial topics is useful for teachers and that it helps to rethink what teaching about controversial topics can be," says the leader of the research group, Marie von der Lippe. The group will soon also publish an anthology on controversial issues in education.

Completing an Anthology on Controversial Issues in Education

The teaching materials developed by the group are research-based and exploratory. Several are based on empirical research that will soon be available in book form when the research group's anthology is published. On September 16, the research group met for a workshop at Lektorsenteret (UiB) in relation to their upcoming anthology on controversial issues in education. The anthology, which will be available as open access, is set to be published in the spring of 2025.

At the seminar at the Lektorsenteret, several of the authors presented their chapters and research findings, followed by discussions on how this knowledge can be applied in the field of practice. The anthology includes chapters such as: 

• «Jeg ville ikke gått i fengsel for det, liksom»: Utforskende undervisning om sivil ulydighet som kontroversielt tema» (Ida Vikøren Andersen, Mari Lund Eide, Hild Elisabeth Hoff, Marie von der Lippe, Christian Lomsdalen) 
   
• «Kontroversielle klimatiltak for et bærekraftig samfunn» (Julie Ødegaard Borge & Mona Langø) 
   
• «Å (under)vise (om) karikaturer av Muhammad: Didaktiske muligheter og utfordringer» (Sebastian Jarmer) 
   
• «Online controversies in the English language classroom: Facilitating critical engagement with social media texts» (Mari Lund Eide & Hild Hoff) 
   
• «Når fritaksretten blir kontroversiell: Inkludering og andregjøring i livssynsmessig fritak i skolen» (Christian Lomsdalen) 
   
• «Storm i et vannglass? Hvordan håndtere og ikke håndtere kontroversielle spørsmål i historieundervisningen» (Christian Sæle) 
   
• «Jakten på resonans: Læreres erfaringer og kompetansebehov i undervisning om kontroversielle tema» (Trine Anker & Marie von der Lippe) 

In the anthology, readers will find the mentioned chapters and other contributions that address controversial topics across various school subjects and educational levels.

Mari Lund Eide, one of the authors in the anthology, explains that her research on controversies in social media can be useful for teachers because it addresses how to incorporate text genres and themes into teaching that young people encounter in their digital lives.

Together with Hild Hoff, Eide has written a chapter that discusses controversies around euthanasia, racism, and Andrew Tate that circulate on social media.

– These are challenging texts and topics for teachers to handle. Through our chapter, we aim to present different ways teachers can facilitate critical engagement with these texts, which might give students useful tools to navigate polarized and controversial topics on social media in a constructive manner, says Eide.

Exploring Controversies Together with Teachers

On October 1, the research group met again, this time at NLA University College – Department of Teacher Education, which has relocated to Kalfaret. Here, the researchers worked in groups to develop and test various exploratory ways of teaching controversial topics.

Christian and Marianne are testing an activity where Lego is used as a tool for building trust and as an starting point for working with controversial issues.

Photo:

Marie von der Lippe

The lesson plans developed at the seminar will be part of a teacher seminar on December 9. Here, the research group invites teachers from various schools and subject areas to try out and learn more about working exploratively with controversial issues. Read more about the teacher seminar on exploratory teaching and register by November 5, 2024.