4 AMERICAN EDUCATOR - WINTER 2021-22 - SCIENCE AND CITIZENSHIP - Using Science Education Skills to Address Controversial Topics

Oct 15, 2026

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A science teacher recounts a tense classroom moment immediately after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when students demanded to know how she voted. Rather than reveal personal political views, she emphasizes equality, privacy, and constitutional ideals to maintain trust across differences. The article then frames science education as a pathway for engaging controversial topics by building common ground, strengthening content confidence, and equipping students against propaganda, pseudoscience, and misinformation through evidence-based teaching.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Using Science Education Skills to Address Controversial Topics

Classroom response after the 2016 election

Equality, common ground, and confidence in content

Preventing susceptibility to misinformation

4 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | WINTER 2021–22 SCIENCE AND CITIZENSHIP Using Science Education Skills to Address Controversial Topics By Alyson Miller “D o they not want us?,” I overheard a high school student ask a small group of peers, all recent immigrants to the United States, on the morning after the 2016 presidential election. I rushed to get to the faculty bathroom and back to my classroom in the five-minute break between classes and pretended that I had not heard him, a former student of mine. Normally, he was confident and funny, secure in his popularity among other students, but the catch in his throat bothered me. I should have stopped. I should have said something, anything, to comfort him—but I didn’t. I rushed to class. As soon as I walked into the room, my students pummeled me with questions. “Who’d you vote for, Miss?” I’m a white, middle-aged science teacher who wears pearl earrings, Top-Siders, and oversized tortoise-shell glasses. My students—42 percent of whom were enrolled in the free or reducedprice lunch program, 60 percent of them white, 27 percent of them Hispanic or Latinx (and the rest Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, or multiracial), 7 percent with limited English proficiency—couldn’t tell from the way I dressed if I had voted for the winner or the loserin that election, and they demanded to know. It was still early in the school year, and they hadn’t made up their minds about me. Was I with them or against them? “I’m not telling you,” I said. “The other teachers told us,” one said.“It doesn’t matter now if you tell us or not.” Awall of male students sat on top of their desks, arms crossed defensively, eyes squinting, practically daring me to give them an answer that they didn’t want to hear. Ipaused, weighing their argument. Technically, it didn’t matter since the election was over and my choice of candidate would not affect their voting behavior or that of their family members. Yet announcing my political views could alienate some students, and that was unacceptable. “First,” I said,“my vote is private. It’s personal, and I don’t have to tell anyone how I voted.” They didn’t move. Maybe a few lips thinned in disapproval. “Second,” I said,“what I believe in more than anything else is equality.” I looked down at my desk, away from their eyes.“It’s in our Constitution that all men are created equal, and I believe in that more than I believe in anything else.” I looked back at them.“That means that if I voted for the winner, and you or your family didn’t, then you might perceive me as being a little superior to you. Or ifI voted for the loser, and you voted for the winner, then you might think that I’m inferior to you. I’m not telling you who I voted for because you and I are equal, and I’m not going to say anything that would jeopardize that. Period.” It was the only time in my nearly 20 years of teaching that I received a standing ovation, and I instantly had the ear of those students. Later, if I said something that they disagreed with or did Alyson Miller teaches science at Nashua High School North in Nashua, New Hampshire. Since beginning her teaching career in 2003, she has taught zoology, biology, physical science, plant science, and physics classes. She was a charter member of the AFT Teacher Leaders Program, and her project led to her winning a scholarship from the National Center for Science Education to learn about “Deep Time” by rafting and studying the Grand Canyon. Prior to becoming a teacher, she was a research supervisor with Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University. not want to believe, they respected me enough to listen. That’s a really big thing when it comes to teaching science because we educators are tiptoeing through political and religious minefields as we teach climate change, evolution, and genetic engineering. Some of our students shield themselves against us before they ever hear a word we say. How can we—aside from building on qu

FAQs

Why did the teacher refuse to tell students who she voted for after the 2016 election?

She argued that her vote is private and that revealing it could jeopardize students’ sense of equality, potentially making some feel superior or inferior.

How does the article connect science teaching to handling political and religious tensions?

It stresses that educators often navigate “minefields” while teaching topics like climate change, evolution, and genetic engineering, and it asks how science education techniques can reduce vulnerability to propaganda and misinformation.

What does the author identify as common ground for students from different backgrounds?

She describes common ground as the shared reality of survival—each person has endured an obstacle-filled, marathon-like path through history.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by McQueen