This paper argues the importance in and for a democratic state and society of discussing controversial issues in education. In particular it analyses two national educational contexts, that of England and South Africa. It considers both whether they provide a suitable framework for teaching controversial issues in school classrooms and if they prepare teachers to be able to organise discussions of controversial issues in schools. The paper then examines interview data on teaching controversial issues with university tutors and student teachers in four universities, two in England and two in South Africa. The data suggest that there are still serious obstacles in both countries to teaching controversial issues in schools and in preparing teacher education students to teach about controversial issues.