This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Hand, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Should we teach homosexuality as a controversial issue?

Institute of Education, University of London, UK

Philosophers of education disagree on how the question of the moral status of homosexual acts should be tackled in the classroom. Some argue that the question should be taught as a controversial issue, that we should present rival moral positions as even-handedly as possible; others maintain that we should actively promote the view that homosexual acts are morally legitimate or unproblematic. Here I attempt to resolve this disagreement. In the first part of the article I defend the use of Robert Dearden's epistemic criterion for identifying the questions that should be taught as controversial issues. In the second part I argue that the question of the moral status of homosexual acts does not satisfy this criterion because moral objections to homosexuality are rationally indefensible. I conclude that we ought to affirm the moral legitimacy of homosexual acts in the moral education of children and young people.

Key Words: controversial issue • epistemic criterion • homosexuality • moral education • natural law • public values

Theory and Research in Education, Vol. 5, No. 1, 69-86 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1477878507073614


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?