What should we teach as controversial? A defense of the epistemic criterion

Educational Theory

Volumn 58, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 213-228

  Hand, Michael ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 65249175659     PISSN: 00132004     EISSN: 17415446     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-5446.2008.00285.x     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Robert Dearden, "Controversial Issues and the Curriculum" (1981), in Theory and Practice in Education (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984), 86. This work will be cited as CI in the text for all subsequent references.
2. Michael Hand, "Should We Teach Homosexuality as a Controversial Issue?" Theory and Research in Education 5, no. 1 (2007): 69-86.
3. See, for example, Oxfam, Teaching Controversial Issues (Oxford: Oxfam, 2006);
4. TeacherNet, Racist Bullying, www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/ behaviour/tacklingbullying/racistbullying; Learning and Skills Development Agency, Agree To Disagree: Citizenship and Controversial Issues (London: Learning and Skills Development Agency, 2005);
5. CitizEd, Teaching Controversial Issues: Briefing Paper for Trainee Teachers of Citzenship Education (London: CitizEd, 2004);
6. Citizenship Foundation, Teaching About Controversial Issues: Guidance for Schools (London: Citizenship Foundation, 2003);
7. Runnymede Trust, Complementing Teachers (London: Runnymede Trust, 2003);
8. Countryside Foundation for Education, Handling Controversial Issues in the Classroom (Hebden Bridge: Countryside Foundation for Education, 2002);
9. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, Citizenship Scheme of Work for Key Stage 3: Teacher's Guide (London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 2001);
10. Development Education Association, Citizenship Education: The Global Dimension (London: Development Education Association, 2001);
11. and Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools: Final Report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship (London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 1998).
12. Education Act 1996 (London: HMSO), Section 407.
13. Citizenship Foundation, Teaching About Controversial Issues: Guidance for Schools, 4; and Teacher- Net, Racist Bullying.
14. Oxfam, Teaching Controversial Issues, 6.
15. Ibid., 2.
16. TeacherNet, Racist Bullying.
17. Christopher Oulton, Vanessa Day, Justin Dillon, and Marcus Grace, "Controversial Issues - Teachers' Attitudes and Practices in the Context of Citizenship Education," Oxford Review of Education 30, no. 4 (2004): 498.
18. Ibid., 494.
19. Ibid., 504.
20. Peter Gardner, "Another Look at Controversial Issues and the Curriculum," Journal of Curriculum Studies 16, no. 4 (1984): 379-385. This work will be cited as AL in the text for all subsequent references.
21. John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 5.
22. Hand, "Should We Teach Homosexuality as a Controversial Issue?" For representative works in this debate, see, for example, Jan Steutel and Ben Spiecker, "Sex Education, State Policy, and the Principle of Mutual Consent," Sex Education 4, no. 1 (2004): 49-62;
23. David Archard, Sex Education (London: Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, 2000);
24. David Archard, "How Should We Teach Sex?" Journal of Philosophy of Education 32, no. 3 (1998): 437-449;
25. John E. Petrovic, "Promoting Democracy and Overcoming Heterosexism: And Never the Twain Shall Meet?" Sex Education 2, no. 2 (2002): 147-156;
26. John E. Petrovic, "Moral Democratic Education and Homosexuality: Censoring Morality," Journal of Moral Education 28, no. 2 (1999): 201-209;
27. J. Mark Halstead and Katarzyna Lewicka, "Should Homosexuality Be Taught as an Acceptable Alternative Lifestyle? A Muslim Perspective," Cambridge Journal of Education 28, no. 1 (1998): 49-64;
28. Terence H. McLaughlin, "Sex Education, Moral Controversy and the Common School," in Sex Education and Religion, eds. Michael Reiss and Shaikh Abdul Mabud (Cambridge: The Islamic Academy, 1998);
29. Alexander McKay, "Accommodating Ideological Pluralism in Sexuality Education," Journal of Moral Education 26, no. 3 (1997): 285-300;
30. and Patricia White, "Parents' Rights, Homosexuality and Education," British Journal of Educational Studies 39, no. 4 (1991): 398-408.
31. Archard, Sex Education, 42.
32. Steutel and Spiecker, "Sex Education, State Policy and the Principle of Mutual Consent," 55.
33. Citizenship Foundation, Teaching About Controversial Issues: Guidance for Schools, 5-6.
34. Steutel and Spiecker, "Sex Education, State Policy and the Principle of Mutual Consent," 50.
35. John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (1848; repr. Amherst, Massachusetts: Prometheus Books, 2004), 857.
36. Archard, "How Should We Teach Sex?" This work (see n. 14 for complete citation) will be cited as TS in the text for all subsequent references.
37. The article Archard refers to is McKay, "Accommodating Ideological Pluralism in Sexuality Education."