A Transdisciplinary Approach to Teacher Preparation: Providing Equitable Access for All Students to Learn Social Studies Content,Skills, and Processes

Abstract

Contextualized in the critical pedagogies of universal design for learning (UDL) and social justice education, our study aimed to equip teacher candidates (TCs) to provide students with equitable access to learning social studies content knowledge, skills, and processes as a way to equally empower all students to be civically engaged, and thus to disrupt the social reproduction of empowering privileged students and disempowering marginalized ones in the public schools. An earlier study indicated that our TCs did not transfer or generalize the UDL framework from foundation courses to subsequent classes or in practice. This case study describes how and in what ways elementary education faculty used a transdisciplinary approach, integrating the UDL framework taught in the foundation’s course into a social studies methods course to facilitate TCs’ continued learning and application of theory into practice. The results of this case study suggest that TCs that TCs had not yet internalized the UDL framework or critical consciousness and that these must be intentionally transferred and generalized to new coursework by the faculty on a consistent, ongoing basis.     

中国国际收支研究的几个基础问题

国际收支研究是国际金融理论研究的基础和重要部分 ,对一国国民经济政策决策有着极为重要的意义。其认识可从解决我国国际收支研究的几个基础性问题入手 ,利用我国近几年来的国际收支数据对我国宏观经济政策的有效性进行分析 ,以阐明国际收支研究应当被我国理论界放到更重要的位置。     

Index

Drawing on a three-year multimethod study of civic engagement within “Dewey Elementary,” this article identifies the contextual supports of civic efficacy. In particular, it works to map the role of the teacher in supporting the civic action and efficacy of six fifth-grade girls who requested changes to the school's existing lunch plan. An analysis presents four supports for the development of civic efficacy: building curriculum from life, asking questions, working in a diverse group, and practicing skills of civic activism. The author's conclusions point to particular social spaces and processes that facilitate civic efficacy, which can lead to better practices and policies for civic education in the younger years.     

‘COVID taught me…’: Examining child-radio productions in the COVID-19 pandemic

Framed by critical literacies, the author adapted ethnographic methods to virtual spaces to examine radio as an alternative way to enhance adult understanding of children's COVID-19 experiences. Drawing on a subset of child-produced radio segments from March 2021, she foregrounds how children in an extracurricular program strategically used radio to share their pandemic experiences with their community. Supplemented by 5 months of virtual observations, she identified how child-DJs used radio to share how—through the COVID-19 pandemic—they cared about and for their community. Ultimately, she argues radio is one tool for coming to know children as community change agents.     

Young children's career aspirations: Gender differences,STEM ambitions,and expected skill use

This study examines young children's career aspirations, gender differences in those aspirations, and children's perceptions of the amount of math and science used in careers. We asked 1634 students in first to third grades what job they wanted in the future and how much they thought they would use math or science in it. Career aspirations were sorted into 27 career categories, of which 12 showed significant gender differences. Notably, boys were more likely to indicate military, manual labor, and math/computer science careers, and girls were more likely to indicate stay at home parent, education, and animal care careers. Students aspiring to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers thought they would use science, but not math, more than non-STEM-aspiring students did. School counseling interventions focused on specific STEM subfields, and education highlighting links between school subjects and careers requirements may benefit students and reduce gender inequality in STEM fields.     

Our journey at Aldergrove Public School – social justice Praxis in one Canadian Elementary School

Our article describes the journey of one school community over a two-year period as it attempted to implement a social justice across the curriculum from kindergarten to Grade 8 in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada. Teachers, staff, students and families worked collaboratively and adopted an inquiry stance in exploring how to make social justice come alive across the school. Our main motivation was the belief that children can make a positive difference in the world.     

Book Reviews and Book Notes

Elementary students are often hampered by a tendency to ascribe innovation to increasing human intelligence or individual agency rather than increased information, better access to information, or collective and institutional agency. As a result, they struggle to build evidence-based interpretations of the distant past. A fifth-grade “experimental archaeology” approach to studying ancient Eastern Woodlands Indians served as an intellectual tipping point in students' interpreting ancient people's intellect, ingenuity, and agency. As fifth-graders participated in a field-based experience with chaîne opératoire (the sequence of operations) for tools and technologies, classroom-based opportunities to consider material objects as primary sources, and opportunities for reflection, they confirmed the power of “engaged understanding” in supporting the humanistic and civic goals of social studies.     

Revised Historical Viewpoints

The author describes the use of literature circles in a social studies methods course for elementary preservice teachers and analyzes their effectiveness in teaching powerful social studies ideas. Literature circles encourage students to take more of a leadership role in the classroom, expect their active involvement, and challenge them to think more deeply about social studies content within texts. Students can compare different perspectives on the same historical event, such as the encounter between Columbus and the Taino, and reasons for including and omitting important ideas. Students can also note similarities and differences among cultures and current and historical events through literature circle discussions. However, teachers must carefully select texts which focus on powerful social studies ideas, emphasize the goal of thoughtful discussions when introducing literature circles, and be ready to raise significant issues ignored in the literature circle discussions during follow-up class discussions.     

1928-1937年北平市小学教育探析

1928年北平特别市成立时,小学教育百废待兴。为普及义务教育,北平市政府在整顿公私立小学的同时,大力兴办短期小学及简易小学,实行二部制教学,以救济失学儿童;改善小学教职员的待遇,加强教职员的检定和培训,以提高师资水平。从小学课程设置上来看,最为显著的是在各小学校全面设置党义课,并十分注重学生的训育管理。通过以上实践,北平市小学教育有所发展,但总体来说,仍处于一个较低的水准。