This study explores how history teachers in Taiwan make curricular decisions while engaging controversial public issues. The main political controversies discussed in Taiwanese society center on the relationship between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. This study documents how four social studies teachers formulate their curricular decisions through the intersecting lenses of professional knowledge and personal beliefs. Findings illuminate the role of personal experience and belief in teacher's curricular-instructional gate keeping in socially divisive contexts. In sum, this study helps us understand the relationship between a teacher's own imaginative worldview, sense of personal and professional identity and their classroom teaching practices.