Teaching Controversies Revisited

Implications of Self-Respect as an Educational Good

Bibliographic Data

ID11952354
AuthorsShiying Li (0000-0002-8184-4568, University of Wisconsin–Madison)
Year2025
Publication date2025-07-11
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Philosophy of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-8249 • E-ISSN: 1467-9752
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/jopedu/qhaf042
OpenAlexW4412345331
LanguageEN
References cited35

Teaching controversial moral and political issues in K-12 and higher education, especially in a polarized society, is a challenging and contested endeavour. Educators who include such topics in their curricula are sometimes accused of advancing personal political agendas or indoctrinating students. Some argue that the aims of higher education should be restricted to the transmission of disciplinary knowledge and skills. Even proponents of teaching controversial issues may worry that instructors lack the necessary skills to teach them effectively. Moreover, deciding which issues should be taught is itself contentious, and numerous challenges arise in the process of teaching them. In this paper, I argue that the educational-goods framework for educational decision-making proposed by Brighouse et al. offers a valuable approach to navigating these complexities. I begin by supplementing the framework, suggesting that the list of educational goods should be determined not a priori, but by what educational goods we ought to make salient in particular contexts and debates. I propose adding the capacity for robust self-respect to the list of educational goods, especially in the context of teaching controversial issues. I then provide reasons for including certain controversial issues in the curriculum and discuss how to weigh these reasons against potential risks using the educational-goods framework. Finally, I offer pedagogical recommendations and address distributive issues that arise in teaching controversial topics. I demonstrate how this framework can guide teachers in making informed and context-sensitive professional decisions by balancing the production and distribution of educational goods

Epistemology · Higher education · Pedagogy · Philosophy of education · Political science · Sociology · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Psychology · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies · Law · Philosophy · Social Psychology