Teaching About Terrorism

Abstract

This chapter discusses several ethical elements of teaching about terrorism, including the strengths and weaknesses of various styles of delivery and the use of different resources. The primary arguments made in this chapter are that the content of the course should be advertised correctly and that the professor should be competent in the material. Beyond that, this chapter identifies some of the strengths, weaknesses, and ethical challenges of four of the primary methods of teaching terrorism courses: participation/discussion, films, case studies, and simulations. Although each of these four methods has its own strengths and weaknesses, and each can generate some ethical challenges, the overall point made in this chapter is that a competent instructor, who is knowledgeable on the subject matter and clearly defines the topic of a specific course, should use a mixture of methods based on his or her expertise and abilities.