NCTCA 2025

Taking up controversy can be so engaging but becomes so much work when things slide off the rails! In our pluralistic, conflict-driven society, teachers must often hold space in our classrooms for challenging topics and examining multiple views. In the face of increasing unrest in our globalizing world, how can teachers create safety in which students can risk voicing ideas and exploring difficult topics without creating conflict? If critical, argumentative dynamics and writing are the focus, how can we strike a balance and create an environment without ideological blow-outs? In this follow-up session to the DLA Theory, we shift from introductions, intangible framing, and boundary establishment to practical hands-on pedagogical planning. I’ll offer a series of practical ways teachers can begin to or further implement the safety/ risk taking paradox and provide time and support for planning something “dangerous” for your own students. Bring a challenging text to work from OR draw from ideas and texts I’ll share to build a learning process or product that fits YOUR students, and encourages them to grow into practiced evaluators, communications, and push their comfort boundaries when they feel safe to do so. Holding space for this important work while feeling supported and confident with current research instead of on edge or at sea will bring you new confidence in building safe foundations from which to teach dangerously and allow your students to take new risks in their communication.