Teaching sensitive and controversial issues in divided societies
ThemesTeaching sensitive and controversial issues in divided societies
What is this about?
Teaching sensitive and controversial issues in history education helps students to develop critical thinking, analytical skills and understand the world we live in better. Scholars agree that the question is not should we teach these issues but how should we teach them.[1] The Committee of Ministers[2] and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe[3] also highlight the importance of teaching sensitive and controversial issues in history education.
- ↑ Stradling R. Teaching 20th-century European History. Council of Europe; 2001.
- ↑ Recommendation Rec(2001)15 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on history teaching in twenty-first-century Europe. Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. 2001 Oct 31. [cited 2020 Nov 16]. Available from: https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=09000016805e2c31.
- ↑ Recommendation 1880 (2009). History teaching in conflict and post-conflict areas. Parliamentary Assembly. 2006 June 26. [cited 2020 Nov 16]. Available from: http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=17765&lang=en
Why is this important?
The 20th century history contains a wide spectrum of controversial and sensitive issues such as treaty violations, military occupations, collaboration with occupying forces, civil wars, religious persecutions, colonialism, war crimes, deportations, ethnic cleansing and the Holocaust, among others.[1]
Sensitive topics are those that are connected to exceptionally painful and tragic historical times and events. Examples of sensitive issues are the Holocaust, racism, treatment of Roma/Gypsies and refugees. Teaching about these events can renew old wounds and bring back painful memories.[1]
Controversial issues regard disagreements about what happened, why it happened and how significant is the event. Sometimes these disagreements are present only at the academic level, when two or more historians interpret the same evidence in different ways. For example, some historians argue and debate over the war guilt of the outbreak of World War I.[2] Other times, however, these issues divide groups, societies, whole nations and neighboring countries with regard to what occurred, why it occurred, who started it, who was right, who provides the best argument and who has been most selective with the evidence.[1] Teaching of such topics presents a great challenge particularly in societies that are divided ethnically, nationally or religiously,[3] such as Northern Ireland and Cyprus or in some countries from former Yugoslavia. There is no European country without its controversial and sensitive issues.[1] Controversial topics can be also sensitive because they are disturbing, they challenge peoples’ loyalties and provoke their prejudices.[1]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Stradling R. Teaching 20th-century European History. Council of Europe; 2001.
- ↑ Boldt A. Study and Teaching of 20th century European history. A multidisciplinary approach and research methods. Saarbrücken: Scholar’s Press; 2015.
- ↑ Kello K. Sensitive and controversial issues in the classroom: teaching history in a divided society. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice. 2016;22(1): 35-53.
For whom is this important?
What are the best practices?
In these situations, history teachers are mediators between different and sometimes conflicting collective memories.[1] Teaching topics such as the civil war in Northern Ireland, where everyday life reminds its population about their divisions due to past and present conflicts is particularly difficult for history teachers who teach in that area.[2] According to recent findings, many teachers feel uncertain and underprepared when teaching controversial and sensitive issues because of the fear of the emotional reaction in the classroom, perception of pressures from school, parents, local community or state or even because of their own beliefs and identities.[3][1] [4]This is why some European universities offer courses on teaching controversial and sensitive issues in history education with aim of preparing future teachers for these challenges.[5]
Providing students with balanced academic approach of these issues[2] is necessary to help them understand that almost every historical topic is open to different interpretations,[6] particularly when teaching these issues in societies with opposite narratives. That is an opportunity for a multi-perspective approach,[7] but also for developing students’ ability to deal with controversial issues and debating with people who do not share their opinion.
Main strategies teachers can use when dealing with these issues in the classroom are:
-distancing strategy (when an issue is highly sensitive in the community where the teacher is teaching or when the class is polarized. This strategy proposes examining analogies and parallels or going back further in time to trail the history of the issue that is being discussed).
-compensatory strategy (when students are expressing attitudes based on ignorance, when the minority is being bullied or discriminated against by the majority or when there is consensus in the class in favor of one particular interpretation. In these cases, teachers can play the devil’s advocate, highlight contradictions in students’ responses or demythologize popular beliefs).
-empathetic strategy (when the issue involves a group or nation which is unpopular with the students, when the issue involves latent discrimination against some group or where the issue is distant from the students’ own lives. Teachers can use several methods, such as role reversals, for-and-against lists, role play and simulations and also vicarious experience through examining films, novels or documentaries).
-exploratory strategies (when the issue is not clearly defined or where the teacher’s aim is also to use the issue as a tool to develop analytical skills. In such conditions, students can explore people’s diaries and memoirs or conduct oral history).[3]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kello K. Sensitive and controversial issues in the classroom: teaching history in a divided society. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice. 2016;22(1): 35-53.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Barton KC, Mccully AW. History, identity, and the school curriculum in Northern Ireland: an empirical study of secondary students’ ideas and perspectives. Journal of Curriculum Studies. 2005;37(1): 85-116.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Stradling R. Teaching 20th-century European History. Council of Europe; 2001.
- ↑ Zembylas M, Kambani F. The Teaching of Controversial Issues During Elementary-Level History Instruction: Greek-Cypriot Teachers' Perceptions and Emotions. Theory and Research in Social Education. 2012;40(2):107-133.
- ↑ Graduate study programme. History (double-major) Specialization: teacher education or research. University of Split Faculty of Humanities and Social science. December 2019. [cited 2020 Nov 16]. Available from: http://inet1.ffst.hr/_download/repository/Graduate_programme_-_History.pdf.
- ↑ Boldt A. Study and Teaching of 20th century European history. A multidisciplinary approach and research methods. Saarbrücken: Scholar’s Press; 2015.
- ↑ Mccully A. History teaching, conflict and the legacy of the past. ECSJ. 2012; 7(2):145-159.
Andrijana Perković Paloš contributed to this theme. Latest contribution was Oct 22, 2021
