ESTCA 2020

Are you nervous about teaching contentious or controversial issues and divergent perspectives in your classroom? We can help! This session reports on a federally-funded project to equip teachers with tools to engage with "hot topics" in a way that allows students and teachers to dialogue across difference. You will learn how to apply research from social psychology in your classroom to de-escalate defensive reactions arising from "worldview threat." This approach has been shown to not only decrease conflict, but also to increase student: engagement, inquiry, and critical thinking. We will also reveal how this framework can serve as a lens to understand conflict studied as part of the social studies (and other) curriculum topics (e.g., colonization, genocide, internment). Attendees will gain: theoretical knowledge, specific classroom strategies, examples and anecdotes about implementing these ideas, and a website with lessons plans and resources based upon the session.