“We Must Look at Both Sides”—But a Denial of Genocide Too?: Difficult Moments on Controversial Issues in the Classroom

Abstract

In language education, controversial issues sometimes emerge in either planned or spontaneous ways. Based on a classroom episode, this article illuminates dilemmas of approaching controversial issues for teachers who embrace critical pedagogy. A review of interdisciplinary literature demonstrates a general agreement on presenting balanced views while exhibiting disagreements on teacher neutrality. While advocates of critical pedagogy may not support maintaining an absolute balance or teacher neutrality, their progressive stance, just as a conservative one, may lead to the imposition of ideas. Although a poststructuralist approach, which views all knowledge as legitimate for examination with contextual relativity, might be a solution, it sometimes contradicts support for social justice. This paradox parallels a rift between theory and practice as seen in the criticisms of postcolonial/poststructuralist theory. It suggests that a focus on not only open attitudes and knowledge deconstruction but also affective dimensions with imagination and hyper-self-reflexivity broadens pedagogical possibilities.

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