Human Frames for Controversy: How Teacher Identities Inform Four White Teachers’ Text Selections, Instructional Framing, and Discussion Facilitation about Sociopolitical Issues

Every day, secondary teachers in the U.S. select and discuss texts about controversial issues like race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, and mental health. Two research questions guided this study: 1) How do teachers’ text selections, instructional framing, and discussion facilitation choices about “controversial” issues relate to their teacher identities and school contexts? 2) How do students respond to the choices their teachers make about controversial issues in the classroom? To investigate these questions, I interviewed four teachers, observed their class discussions, and facilitated small group meetings with the teachers about how they make instructional choices about teaching controversial issues in their suburban midwestern high school. In addition, I interviewed 42 students about their perceptions of the texts they read and the issues they discuss. After analyzing the data, I describe teachers’ identities as individuals, the ways they interact with other stakeholders and authorities in the school and community, and the ways that they select texts and facilitate discussions in their own classrooms, and the ways students perceptions of controversial texts and issues in their classrooms. This study argues that each teacher’s identity both supports and constrains their choices in the classroom, and that teachers are in constant dialogue with power relationships in the social context of the school. In addition, findings suggest that students recognize and value the individualized nature of teachers’ approaches to teaching controversial issues. These findings have implications for the ways that teachers reflect on and communicate their identities and instructional choices, and the ways that schools create professional development for teachers.