Anxiety and learning: Cultural polarisation in social science courses. Issue 2 (1st June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Santos, Jose Leonardo
• Is Part Of: Learning and teaching. Volume 13:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 62
• Page End: 84
• Publication Date: 2020-06-01
• Subjects: affective polarisation -- culture wars -- silencing -- social science -- student anxiety -- teaching; Social sciences -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals; 300.711
• DOI: 10.3167/latiss.2020.130205
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1755-2273

Abstract

Abstract: University social science instructors sometimes encounter student silence or quarrels around culturally contentious subjects. In a culture that promotes distrust around the issues they teach, how do professors perceive and cope with such difficulties? Preliminary research using qualitative interviews with teachers from two different US universities explores problems they encounter and strategies they employ in the face of student struggles with nuance and a phenomenon referred to here as polarisation anxiety . Professors strategise how to teach the complexity of phenomenon some students have been culturally predisposed to oversimplify, polarise or remain silent about.