Teaching Controversial Political Issues in the Age of Social Media: Research from Israel

By: Rakefet Erlich Ron and Shahar Gindi

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Synopsis: Using Israel as a case study, this book examines teachers’ approaches to Controversial Political Issues (CPI) in the classroom. The book focuses on the democratic responsibilities that teachers face in an era where social media use is ubiquitous, and polarization and fake news are increasingly common. Presenting original research on the topic and developing a pedagogical framework for dealing with controversial issues in a sensitive and effective manner, this accessible volume highlights social-emotional learning approaches and considers a broad definition of CPI to include issues of racism, religion, political differences, multiculturalism, and Jewish–Arab relations. Using the results of an in-depth research project foregrounding personal experience, the book explores situational accounts of teachers from a diverse range of subject disciplines and different minority–majority group settings to present comparative evidence from European contexts. Offering concrete suggestions for ways of dealing with controversial political issues and volatile remarks that are grounded in research, this timely book will be highly relevant for researchers, students, and educators in the fields of social studies, democratic and peace education, citizenship education, race and education, and educational politics.