Contained Risk-Taking: Preparing Preservice Teachers to Teach Controversial Issues in Three Countries

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

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Controversial Issues (Course Content); Cultural Differences; Teacher Educators; Preservice Teacher Education; Preservice Teachers; Teaching Methods; Risk; Classroom Environment; Foreign Countries; History; Cultural Influences; Higher Education; Consciousness Raising; Citizenship; Safety; Civil Rights; Homicide; Social Studies; Political Issues

United Kingdom (Northern Ireland); United Kingdom (England); United States

10.1080/00933104.2019.1595240

0093-3104

Based on a cross-national study conducted in Northern Ireland, England, and the United States, this article expands current literature by examining 4 teacher educators' efforts to prepare preservice teachers to teach controversial issues. Teaching controversial issues, strongly advocated for decades, is both urgent and risky, especially in divided societies. The risks include emotional reactions that interfere with learning, inflammatory discourse threatening to students, and criticism from community members or school administrators. Using vignettes from class sessions and interview data, this article highlights strategies teacher educators taught their students to deal with these risks, as well as the approaches they used to teach them. Overall, the teacher educators prepared preservice teachers for "contained risk-taking" when teaching controversial issues, and they enacted this stance in their own practice. The findings raise important questions, such as what balance should be struck between an open classroom climate and safe space in politically turbulent times and divided societies.

As Provided

2019

EJ1218580