“The children don’t have any idea” : How case studies of controversy can help build democratic habits of mind

Abstract

This article explores the pathways and challenges to strengthening civic education in nascent democracies. I first provide a rationale for employing controversial issues as a way of achieving this end, especially when used in conjunction with reflective thinking. Then, by drawing on three recent studies, I cinch together the cross-cultural contextual features of school experiences and provide an emergent typology for researchers and policy-makers in other contexts as they work to explore conscious and deliberate treatment of controversial issues in unique settings.