Navigating Controversial Terrain

In this essay, we explore two salient kinds of value conflict between instructors and students and how such conflict can cause both pedagogical and professional challenges for instructors. We delineate two main forms of value conflict: between instructors and students and between students and their peers. We highlight case studies for each example, illustrating first-order pedagogical consequences and second-order social, political, and professional consequences for each conflict type. In response to the two kinds of conflicts instructors in both K–12 and higher education face, we propose Ethics Bowl–style pedagogy as a strategy for addressing each type of conflict. We argue that by utilizing pedagogical tools taken from and inspired by Ethics Bowl, instructors at various institutions and academic levels can mitigate the multiple consequences associated with each value-conflict kind.