Discussing controversial issues in the classroom: Exploring students' safety perceptions and their willingness to participate*

Abstract

Discussing controversial issues is an important means to support secondary school students' democratic citizenship. Using questionnaires, we investigated how students' (N = 284) willingness to participate in such discussions is associated with their safety perceptions (identity threat, classroom opinion climate, teacher interpersonal behavior) and personality traits (extraversion). We used the controversial Dutch tradition of Black Pete as a case. Exploratory network analysis showed that students’ willingness to participate increased when they experienced identity threat. Our findings suggest that teachers can encourage student participation in discussions about controversial issues by creating a safe classroom environment.