Creating High Quality Discussions of Controversial Political Issues

Creating High-Quality Discussions of Controversial Political Issues: A Workshop for Educators Featuring Author Diana Hess

Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Time: 8:00 am to 12:30 pm

Location: Walter Dods, Jr. RISE Center, located at 1810 University Ave Honolulu, HI 96822

Cost: No cost to attend, and participants will receive a $50 stipend for attending, along with a copy of Dr. Hess' book, and lunch

Join us for a half-day workshop for educators led by distinguished scholar, educator, and co-author of The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education, Dr. Diana Hess.

In this workshop, learn what teachers can do to help students participate in high-quality discussions of controversial political issues. Built on a successful secondary school model, the workshop is open to all K-12 educators who are interested in adjusting and applying the framework and strategies to their unique classroom settings. Participants will develop an understanding of the concepts of high-quality discussion and controversial political issues, and the value of integrating this type of content and pedagogy as an essential component of democratic education. Participants will engage first hand in two types of controversial political issue discussions, and learn strategies for helping students build the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to participate in democratic education.  

Thanks to generous funding by the Wolff Social Justice in Education Project, all workshop participants will receive a copy of Dr. Hess' book, as well as a $50 stipend for attending this important professional development workshop. Lunch is also included.

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

Participants will be able to:

1.  Define the concepts of high quality discussion and controversial political issues.
2.  Identify and critically assess various rationales for teaching young people how to participate in controversial political issues discussions.
3. Understand the components of two different approaches to controversial political issues discussions, and assess their strengths and challenges.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Diana E. Hess is a professor of Curriculum and Instruction and the senior leader of The Discussion Project and Deliberation Dinners at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also the principal investigator of a mixed-method study of The Discussion Project funded by the Mellon Foundation and the Chancellor and Provost's Office of UW-Madison. The Discussion Project is a professional development program that aims to help instructors create inclusive, engaging, and academically rigorous discussions in higher education courses and in secondary schools. Currently on a research leave (2024-25), Dr. Hess was the dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin (UW)–Madison and the Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair of Education from 2015-2024. Dr. Hess's research focuses on civic and democratic education. Her first book, Controversy in the Classroom: The Democratic Power of Discussion (Routledge, 2009), won the Exemplary Research Award (2009) from the National Council for the Social Studies. Her second book, co-authored with Professor Paula McAvoy, titled The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education (Routledge, 2015) won the American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Book Award (2016) and the Grawemeyer Award (2017). Dr. Hess is currently writing a book (co-authored by Lynn Glueck) that examines what institutions of higher education could do to harness their deliberative assets, help students develop the skills to meaningfully engage in high quality discussions and deliberations, and reduce the most harmful consequences of political polarization. Dr. Hess received the Jean Dresden Grambs Career Research in Social Studies Award from the National Council for the Social Studies (2017). In 2019, Dr. Hess was elected to the National Academy of Education. Her research has been funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. Formerly, Dr. Hess was the senior vice president of the Spencer Foundation, a high school teacher, a teachers' union president, and the associate executive director of the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. Dr. Hess received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1998.