ABSTRACT
Given the long history of advocacy for issues-centered approaches to teaching discussed in the beginning of Chapter 2, it should not be surprising that a host of frameworks have been proposed as conceptual tools for thinking about how to define issues. For example, in an approach advanced in the early 1950s, Hunt and Metcalf (1955) advocated the inclusion of issues related to “taboo” topics (such as sexuality and racism) in the curriculum, while Oliver and Shaver’s (1966) approach focused on policy issues that included the weighing and balancing of competing “democratic” values (such as liberty and equality). Some issues are defined as inherently public, while others, such as the moral dilemmas in Kohlberg’s (1981) approach, are personal decisions for an individual to make in a morally complex situation. In addition, other dimensions of how issues are conceptualized and defined include time (an issue of the past, the present, or possibly the future), place (local, state, national, global), and scope (ranging from broad perennial issues to more narrowly focused “case” issues).
