Chapter 10: Teaching Controversial Issues: An Educational Imperative

This chapter arises out of a qualitative study investigating how the views of student leaders (and some of their staff advisors) illuminate the discussion in the broader literature around issues of student leadership, conflict, diversity, and social justice in secondary schools. Dealing with controversial issues (CIs) permeated the dialogue about conflict, diversity and social justice in secondary schools and, accordingly, is at the core of equity issues within our increasingly pluralistic societal context. We argue that addressing CIs in schools is an educational imperative for meaningful student engagement and for the development of a critical democracy which, in turn, should be founded on a relentless pursuit of equity.