Building Pedagogical and Activist Relationships

As a white professor who teaches courses that deal primarily with the issue of race, the question of whether pedagogy and activism mix is ever present in my mind. The answer to this question is of course complicated and yet, I answer affirmatively. Drawing upon social movement theory and the central tenets of critical pedagogy, I argue that pedagogy and activism can work very well together in the classroom, but that my allegiance to a critical pedagogy does present some necessary constraints on my classroom activism.     

Understanding the Impact of Using Oral Histories in the Classroom

Oral histories are a powerful pedagogical tool in developing historical understanding and important learning skills simultaneously. Teachers use firsthand accounts of historical time periods and/or events to help develop students' sense of history. In addition to gaining historical understanding, students are able to bring history alive by capturing personal stories and connecting with individuals to better understand their experiences and point of view. The purpose of this interpretive case study was to explore in depth how classroom teachers can develop knowledge of the social studies by engaging students in collecting oral histories of local residents. In addition, this case study explores how these strategies impact students' perception of learning social studies and their historical understanding.     

Teaching History That Functions for Daily Living

As the development of active, democratic citizens has become, arguably, the primary purpose of social studies education, the model of instruction in citizenship education varies significantly. Although current models of citizenship education typically foster a sense of societal conformity and law-obeyance to the exclusion of social change, this article illustrates how elementary school students engaged in the critical examination of a pertinent social issue and guided the direction of a social action plan devised to overcome the injustice of bullying. The focus of this article is to illustrate how one fourth-grade teacher harnessed her students’ enthusiasm and interest in activism through an inquiry-based, interdisciplinary social action unit devised to solve elementary school bullying. A detailed, step-by-step narrative of the unit is described.     

Integrating Computational Thinking into Social Studies

Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT) has recently been addressed as one of the key skills for the twenty-first century. Integrating CT into different subject areas of K-12 education is also now widely accepted to improve the quality of instruction. In that sense, it is important to enable educators and researchers to recognize how to integrate computational thinking into K-12 classrooms and to study how students learn to think computationally in social studies courses. Besides, providing good practice on CT helps to develop common ground for the teaching of computational thinking in social studies subject areas. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for social studies teachers with regard to how CT can be integrated into K-12 classrooms for social studies. Moreover, a practical implementation idea is also suggested based on this framework. This paper is expected to provide an insight to social studies teachers who want to integrate CT into their classroom in the future and support them in teaching context.     

Combating Racial Inequity Through Local Historical Analysis: A Community-Informed Social Studies Unit

One way for teachers to use engaging and relevant social studies curriculum is by delving into local history to help students understand the influence that community activists have had on national policies and events. In this article, we provide teachers an approach to incorporate topics of racial inequity in their classrooms by showcasing a dynamic social studies unit that reveals the role of local history and community activists during the national Civil Rights Movement. As an example within the unit, we present a local, historical narrative that describes the activism of three local Black teachers in Palm Beach County, Florida, whose efforts in the 1940s significantly impacted the foundations of what was to become the Civil Rights Movement. We then present a multicultural social studies unit developed from this local history and guidelines for teachers to enact their own locally informed social studies unit. This content will help teachers expose students to the rich history of their community’s past by sharing ways that teachers can incorporate culturally relevant instruction of racially charged topics into the classroom.     

Creating Community: Offering a Liberation Pedagogical Model to Facilitate Diversity Conversations in MFT Graduate Classrooms

Creating a safe place for open classroom engagement on topics of multiculturalism and diversity requires intentionality and honesty. Unless all, professor and students alike, feel safe talking about related issues, the attempt will result in a politically correct exercise in futility. This article focuses on how intentional pedagogical efforts can create a classroom environment conducive to therapeutic self-reflection and result in personal and professional transformation. Offerings include personal reflections, theoretical and pedagogical ideologies and practices, a classroom paradigm as exemplar, critical redefinitions, a survey of other pedagogical endeavors, a template for multicultural instruction, and recommendations.     

The Civil War in Song

Human history is often shaped by the outcomes of arguments, not only in the sense of disputes between people or governments, but in the sense of the more rational pursuit of trying to convince others to accept or do certain things by offering reasons that are presented as compelling for so doing. Yet history teachers have done little to help students learn how to identify arguments in this sense, figure out what the arguments being offered are, and evaluate them. This article shows how a generic instructional technique—infusing direct instruction in skillful thinking into content instruction—can be used in the teaching of American history in ways that help students develop and use these thinking skills and that enhance their deep content understanding of the history being taught. The context is a secondary school classroom studying American history.     

The Importance of the Person in the Role of Teacher

This article illuminates the importance of the person who occupies the role of teacher by focusing on three experienced, well-regarded teachers who work in urban schools. Ms. Smith teaches sixth grade social studies in an independent school, Mr. Peters teaches religious studies in a Catholic high school for boys, and Ms. Walsh teaches English and Public Speaking in a public high school. Despite noteworthy differences in setting, in subject matter, and more, all three teachers reveal that good teaching is at once both an intellectual and a moral endeavor. They show how important it is for teachers to develop a sense of community and of trust in the classroom. Finally, their work sheds light on why a teacher's intellectual and moral sensibility plays a significant role in his or her influence on students.     

The American Civil Rights Movement Reconsidered: Teaching the Role of Women

Abstract

This article examines coverage in social studies curriculum and U.S. history textbooks, specifically, of women in the American Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and considers how social studies teachers can broaden the narrative they teach to include more gender-related issues and the work of women activists. The author found that despite a rich body of scholarship focused on women in the CRM, textbooks, which still serve as the central curriculum documents in most secondary social studies classrooms, provide a relatively cursory treatment of women’s roles in the movement. The context of women’s activism and the intersections of race and gender, particularly around sexual violence and sexism within the movement, are rarely examined. To address this problem, the author provides examples of critical issues confronted by African American women in the era of the CRM as well as examples of activists that teachers could incorporate into their CRM units. In addition, the author argues that an inclusive study of the American CRM provides an excellent opportunity for students to develop an understanding of the many ways in which women and girls—often in the face of great personal danger—acted with courage and skill in the fight for racial justice.     

Illegal Aliens,Criminals, and Hypersexual Spitfires: Latin@ Youth and Pedagogies of Citizenship in Media Texts

This article aims to broaden the ways we conceptualize citizenship and implement citizenship education in social studies. To do so, the authors explore media texts as a curricular and pedagogical site for teaching lessons about citizenship. Specifically, the authors investigate how media drafts the boundaries of citizenship for Latin@ youth, and influences how young people come to understand who is and who is not perceived as a citizen entitled to rights and freedoms. Media texts, like formal social studies curricula, are powerful and enduring educators that shape how students know the world and imagine their place in it. Therefore, this article addresses how social studies teachers can integrate media texts into the classroom to explore representations of Latin@s and the impact that media has on our citizenship identities and experiences.     

Social Studies versus Social Science

The authors of this article examine several controversial U.S. monuments and offer teachers a rationale, resources, and suggested activities for incorporating these historical monuments into classroom instruction. The authors discuss why controversial issues should be discussed in the social studies classroom through the critical examination of national monuments. We argue that discussing key social issues through the analysis of contentious monuments will not only provide students with a more complete picture of history but also allow them to develop critical twenty-first-century skills such as visual literacy and understanding multiple perspectives. The focus is to provide secondary social studies teachers with an alternative approach to examining historical monuments and controversial issues through the analysis of contemporary and historical debates regarding the nature of commemoration on the United States’ landscape. A brief rationale for the inclusion of monuments and controversial issues into the social studies curriculum is provided, as well as examples of provocative historic monuments, example activities to teach these monuments, and suggested resources to further examine this topic.     

The Rationale and Strategies for Undermining Xenophobia in the Classroom

In the last few years, xenophobic rhetoric and policies have sharply increased across the world and is especially apparent in the rise of far right political parties in Europe, the Brexit vote in Great Britain, and the election of Donald Trump in the United States. In these times, teachers have a responsibility to stand for values of inclusion and justice and be a voice of reason among the growing angst and fear-based policy decisions. This article explores the theoretical rationale for taking this position in the classroom in relation to the purpose of education, promoting the good of all students, and creating a classroom environment based on critical thinking and a strong analysis of current cultural and political trends. The article then looks at practical ways teachers can deconstruct this xenophobia in the classroom through instructional practices, creating a welcoming classroom environment, and curricular choices. Although these concepts are applicable in all subject areas, they are of special relevance to social studies teachers.     

MARGINALITY,ADVOCACY, AND THE AMBIGUITIES OF MULTICULTURALISM: NOTES ON ROMANI ACTIVISM IN CENTRAL EUROPE

Activists who take up the cause of marginalized and discriminated cultural groups often find themselves in an ambiguous position in relation to the very people whose interests they seek to represent. Inspired by the ideas of multiculturalism, minority advocates turn the cultural identity of marginalized and discriminated minorities into the central focus of a political struggle for recognition. By so doing, however, they construct a particular sectional minority identity that not only fails to give full expression to individual identities, but is usually also “stigmatized” in the sense that it is popularly associated with standard stereotypical images and negative characteristics. This article identifies this ambiguity in contemporary projects of minority rights advocacy aimed at redressing the social and economic grievances of the Roma in Central Europe. It shows how activists in the articulation of their claims rely on essentialist assumptions of Romani identity. While these minority rights claims resonate well in international forums, they also run the risk of reifying cultural boundaries, stimulating thinking in ethnic collectives, reinforcing stereotypes, and hampering collective action. By reviewing some of the recent literature on multiculturalism in social and political theory, this article explores ways of dealing with this ambiguity. It concludes that minority advocacy for the Roma can avoid the tacit reproduction of essential identities by contesting the essentializing categorization schemes that lie at the heart of categorized oppression and by foregrounding the structural inequality that drives political mobilization.     

The Significance of the Wealth of Nations for Economic Education

Students' understanding of history may be shaped less by their social studies teachers than by the powerfully ubiquitous, historically themed media images they passively consume outside of school. In this article, the author describes two strategies conducted during a classroom-based action research study designed to explore how historically themed film can be used to scaffold activities that encourage middle school students to conduct inquiries of the past and critically evaluate feature films and documentaries. Data collected from student surveys, focus group discussions, assignments, and classroom observations suggested that students benefit from well-structured activities that encourage them to compare historical accounts with cinematic portrayals of the past. In particular, the Know-Wonder-Learn and anticipation guide strategies can encourage critical critical viewing and thinking about how film accounts are created.     

Examining Ecuadorian teachers’ perspectives on their students’ multiculturalism

ABSTRACT

This study investigated Ecuadorian teachers’ attitudes towards multilingual students. This work was informed by findings from two previous studies consisting of observations and interviews with secondary school teachers. In this mixed methods study, 26 teachers completed a 22-question Likert Scale questionnaire that explored their awareness of the influences of students’ cultural norms on classroom instruction. In small focus groups, participants responded to three open-ended questions documenting their definition of multiculturalism and philosophies of how to create a culturally responsive classroom. Findings suggest that Ecuador’s teachers are aware of the diversity within their country but report their training did not stress the pedagogical need to consider cultural influences on teaching and learning.     

Historical institutional child abuse: Activist mobilisation and public inquiries

The abuse of children in institutional settings is an issue of ongoing social, public, and political concern internationally. While societal responses to historical abuse have been the subject of considerable scholarship in recent years, conceptualisation of the role of activism remains limited. This article aims to advance sociological and interdisciplinary perspectives on nonrecent institutional child abuse through a conceptualisation of activist mobilisation. The article begins by providing context for the emergence of institutional child abuse as a social issue. A brief overview of key themes and debates in the interdisciplinary literature is then offered, and a critical gap in current scholarship is identified in relation to activism. Drawing on illustrative examples of activist mobilisation, both in the form of survivor narratives and strategies aimed at influencing policy, the article sets out how a sociology of activism in the field of historical institutional child abuse might proceed. Through attention to the social dynamics of activism, and conceptualisation of collective action in this domain as a social movement, the article provides new insights for the field and an alternative to sociological theorisation of responses to historical institutional child abuse as simply constituting a public scandal or moral panic.     

Letting Students Control Their Own Learning: Using Games,Role-Plays,and Simulations in Middle School U.S. History Classrooms

The purpose of this article is to synthesize research on the benefits and use of games, role-plays, and simulations, whilst providing examples practicing teachers may wish to use in their classroom. Therefore, the article presents a discussion of key previous research on the use of games, role-plays, and simulations in secondary history classrooms. It also presents a discussion of the benefits games, role-plays, and simulations can have on student learning. This includes discussion of how such student-centered teaching and learning opportunities can improve students' critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaborative skills. Finally, it presents examples of these types of student-centered, inquiry-based, hands-on learning experiences, drawn from the author's previous 16 years of secondary classroom experiences.     

Applying a Critical and Peace Education Lens to the American Revolution in the Social Studies Classroom

Abstract

The American Revolution is central to the identity of citizens of the United States. It is, therefore, rarely critiqued in the U.S. social studies classroom. This article examines how teachers can discuss the American Revolution using both a critical historical approach and the ideas of peace education, particularly the strand that focuses on the problematization of war. Specific examples are given for how teachers can critique some of the national myths surrounding the American Revolution. Furthermore, the rationale for this critique of the American Revolution is presented, particularly as it relates to the problematic history of minorities in the aftermath of the Revolution and the relationship between students’ views of the American Revolution and the ties to modern-day violence and military engagements. The goal for this more nuanced understanding of the American Revolution is not only to make students more critical thinkers in regard to their history but hopefully to also help them gain a healthier societal outlook in regard to the issues of peace and conflict.     

Unsettling research versus activism: how might critical disability studies disrupt traditional research boundaries?

Abstract

This article responds to the call for producing activist-oriented scholarship by engaging with theoretical and methodological approaches that explore the inclusion of women and girls with disabilities in Vietnam. We consider possibilities for connecting different forms of knowledge and activism by reflecting on research practices designed to foster social change. Specifically, we ask: how can critical disability studies be more reflexive about knowledge which privileges particular ways of knowing from the Global North? What alternative possibilities can exist to foster more inclusive and transformative knowledge that tackles systemic forms of oppressions in colonial and postcolonial contexts? Reflecting on an ongoing collaborative project in Vietnam, we argue that critical disability studies which engages with different forms of activism through critical reflections on our privileges can tackle exclusion by opening a new platform for debating social justice transnationally.     

Science,Invention and Society

Social studies teacher educators highlight the importance of oral stories and histories in the social studies classroom, leading social studies learners to seek multiple perspectives and encourage historical thinking in the classroom. However, preservice teachers are given few opportunities to internalize this idea. In this article, the author examines the collection of oral stories and creation of performances in a social studies methods course. The process involves preservice teachers conducting oral history interviews, choosing material to explore, creating and performing stories, and sharing their representations with peers. As preservice teachers become storytellers of someone's history, they are made aware of their own subjectivity.