Kunskapsöversikt om hur lärare arbetar med kontroversiella ämnen i samhällskunskap

Sammanfattning: Civic teachers in Swedish upper secondary schools are facing a more challenging job than ever due to the current polarized political climate. They are expected to teach about controversial issues whilst keeping the classroom at peace and at the same time allowing each student the opportunity to express their opinion. This research overview strives to explore how teachers teach and deal with controversial topics in civic studies. How can teachers work with controversial issues in the classroom? And what does previous research say about this work? In order to answer these questions a literature search has been done and previous research and empirical material has been analyzed. The findings show different approaches, such as denying the controversy or presenting different perspectives of the controversy, when teaching controversial topics in the classrooms. The results of this research review also presents different perspectives from both teachers and students on the subject, teachers’ dilemma as well as pedagogical tools that can be beneficial for students’ development. The findings also show that there is no clear answer or manual that teachers can follow or be guided by when teaching about and dealing with controversial issues. However, depending on one's goal of the lesson, one can strategically use a certain approach in order to try and reach a certain outcome.