Learning from Conflict: Discussing Controversial Issues in the Classroom

When highly charged events happen in the world, it's not always easy for classroom teachers to help students make sense of things, even under the best of circumstances. But now, with curriculum restrictions and book bans occurring across the country, the subject of whether—and how—teachers might address controversial topics is under a microscope, with very real potential consequences for one's career.

Despite these difficult circumstances, research shows that discussing conflicts and controversial topics is good for students, both cognitively and developmentally. This research shows that learning takes place under these conditions:

• All students have ample opportunities to explore and explain various views through perspective-taking approaches.
• Teachers ensure that different points of view are listened to, and then confronted.
• Teachers encourage examining controversy while stressing cooperative contexts.

So while discussing controversial topics can feel risky, it's possible to teach students the critical skills of civil discourse without jeopardizing your job.

Establishing SEL and Safe Classroom Communication

Instead of launching into discussions or lessons about sensitive or politically charged topics, it's essential to first create a positive classroom community. Establishing a civil, safe classroom culture won't happen overnight, but there are ways to scaffold and build an environment where students feel confident and secure enough to discuss even tricky topics.

• Addressing social and emotional learning (SEL) is a great place to start. There are plenty of curriculum and programs out there that address social and emotional learning skills, and here are some quick classroom activities.
• Practice discussion or debate protocols so students are comfortable with participating or speaking in a variety of contexts. Don't shy away from practicing with low-stakes activities like "this or that," where you present students with choices to practice debate and discussion. Football or basketball? Math or English? TikTok or Snapchat? And the section on discussion and feedback in this curated list of tools might help students practice more structured responses.
• With so much of young people's lives residing in online spaces, it's crucial to practice in-person and civil communication, both online and off. Active listening, leading with empathy, and being curious rather than condemning are some strong foundations.

Perspective Taking Activities for Students

After you've established your classroom culture and discussion norms, and practiced with lower-stakes topics, you can wade into deeper waters. To introduce a controversial issue that's in the news, you can begin with a common text and model summary skills to the whole class, adding relevant background information. On particularly complex issues, the next step might be for the class to engage in the "Circle of Viewpoints" Visible Thinking routine from Harvard's Project Zero, which encourages students to consider diverse perspectives by envisioning the questions that different stakeholders might have.

For example, a discussion about school cellphone bans might explore the viewpoints of students, teachers, administrators, families, and government officials. Talk about how the issue affects each group and in what ways. An activity like this helps students move beyond their initial bias about the issue and see things from a broader perspective.

Finding and Analyzing Media Texts

There are lots of texts and multimedia stories you can use for the activity described above, but the PBS KIDS Talk About series (for younger kids) and Above the Noise (for older kids) are programs that aims to build students' civic engagement and digital literacy.

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For example, the KQED Learn discussion titled "Should the U.S. have Universal Healthcare?" has stories from nine different sources offering a mix of perspectives on the issue, such as the OECD, Harvard Health, and the Heritage Foundation. The sources themselves offer a mix of video, text, infographics, and data sets which would integrate well with informational writing units.

Another site you can use is ProCon.org, which aims for an informed citizenry by presenting multiple sides of controversial issues in a nonpartisan format. For media literacy teaching resources, you can go to the Media Education Lab's Teaching Resources page, and of course Common Sense Education's Digital Citizenship Curriculum. If you're looking to help students decode political language, check out the Teen Fact-Checking Network from Poynter and Media Wise, as well as FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.

When exploring conflict, students learn best when they rely on others for crucial information. It's also been shown that students learn least when they avoid conflict altogether or just agree to stop the discussion.

Confrontation in a Cooperative Context

Sociocognitive conflict research shows that students learn better when teachers create resource interdependence, where members of the class receive only part of the total information and access the rest through other class members. This is opposed to resource independence, where students have access to all the information before the discussion and so have identical texts. When exploring conflict, students learn best when they rely on others for crucial information. It's also been shown that students learn least when they avoid conflict altogether or just agree to stop the discussion.

One powerful cooperative approach to controversial issues is known as constructive controversy, where students are given articles that take different positions on a pro-con issue and then go through the following process: 

1. Prepare a persuasive case for their position
2. Present their position in a compelling and interesting way.
3. Refute the opposing position while rebutting criticisms of their position.
4. Take the opposing perspectives.
5. Derive a synthesis or integration of the positions with a partner who began arguing from the opposite perspective. 

For details, see Johnson and Johnson’s book, Creative Controversy: Intellectual Challenge in the Classroom.

More than ever, it's clear that we need to show our students how to have constructive discussions that represent differing perspectives. 

These practices should also extend to online communication! We know that social media and anonymity can cause disinhibition and can even lead to rage-baiting, where people cause conflict on purpose. Showing kids how to transfer these skills to digital communication is an important step in this process. Here are some lessons to help:

• Pause and Think Online (Grade 1): We should all pause and think before engaging with controversial topics, and this lesson is a great way for little kids to start this practice.
• Who Is in Your Online Community? (Grade 2): Emphasizing the idea—and importance—of community establishes the fact that we're connected and affect each other.
• My Social Media Life (Grade 7): Kids can encounter controversial topics online, and sometimes that can involve less-than-civil commentary and discussions. Learning how it impacts them and how to handle these situations is helpful.
• We Are Civil Communicators (Grade 12): As students mature, it's critical that they learn how to have difficult conversations both on- and offline.

As kids research and discuss controversial topics, it can also be helpful to give them ways to act, since it's easy to feel powerless in the face of some societal conflicts. One thing you can do is show students how to write a letter to an elected official. Sometimes, this literally takes on the form of a letter sent via the U.S. mail; other times, it results in a more open video statement from students to elected officials and stakeholders in general. You can also introduce kids to organizations that give them a voice, offer opportunities to take action, and work for social justice.

More than ever, it's clear that we need to show our students how to have constructive discussions that represent differing perspectives. Whether or not they're persuaded by someone else's argument, learning how to listen and speak with empathy and respect for others is a life skill that benefits us all.