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This study is about teachers in socially oriented subjects and their attitudes and experiences regarding working with controversial issues in teaching. Previous research has shown that there are shortcomings and major challenges in handling controversial subjects in the classroom. Therefore, I chose to investigate this by interviewing eight subject teachers in socially oriented subjects. The purpose of the study was to examine different teachers' work with controversial issues and their experiences of opportunities and challenges respectively in teaching controversial subjects. After conducting a qualitative interview study with eight teachers, the results were consistent with previous research. The results of the study indicate a lack of time and challenges associated with working on controversial issues, as they are difficult to handle and can lead to conflicts and disruptions in the classroom. Consequently, some teachers choose not to teach about controversial issues. However, on the other hand, the results of the study show that there were teachers who encouraged working with controversial issues as they considered it important to socialize students into society by addressing controversial topics. They believed that by doing so, students develop into democratic citizens with political tolerance. Another interesting finding from the interview study is that certain schools as a whole choose not to work with controversial issues to avoid negative consequences. This is interesting because other schools in the study, for example, those with UN profiles, focus on challenging students with controversial issues to develop them into democratic citizens of society. One can therefore conclude that working with controversial issues is a task that must involve the entire school, not just the teacher, as it requires efforts from management, colleagues, teachers, and students. Thus, in schools where only the teacher is responsible for addressing controversial issues without support from management or colleagues, it may lead to a reduction in teaching on controversial subjects. |
