Search results

This paper deals with two types of educational reform related to teaching and learning the traditional school subject of social studies. First, we consider the importance of teaching about controversial issues by examining the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the record-setting, natural disaster, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in late August 2005. Using this episode as their foundation, the authors demonstrate how the common practice of avoiding controversy within the social studies arena can be addressed. Since Katrina represents a topic for which no warrant exists within state standards for teaching the subject, it can be considered a true “teachable moment”. Second, we analyze a case study involving the use of technology to spark discussion relative to the issues of race and class tied to Katrina, primarily for the two-year period after the hurricane struck. While the use of digital technology has been slow to gain popularity in the field of social studies, the authors use the case study to demonstrate how it can be utilized to generate democratic dialogue and civic engagement.

Focusing on gender as an aspect of diversity, the purpose of this paper is to review social studies research on technology, and suggest a new direction, with gender redefined from a gap to be eliminated to a difference to be explored.

This paper is a literature review of research on gender, technology, and social studies from 1987 to 2007.

Previously, men had more access and used more types of technology than women, but a shift to web‐based computing eliminates some gender gaps. Women dominate online communication. Although “male” technology culture interferes with girls' self‐efficacy in schools and potential computer careers, the new Web 2.0 “participatory culture” holds promise because it relies on collaboration and networking, two well documented female strengths.

The gap notion of gender is questionable because: technology culture has been constructed as male; and social studies education, where women greatly out number men, pays little attention to gender. Evidence suggests that girls and women use technology well when it serves their interests, which may not be the same as men's. Defining gender as difference helps researchers answer calls to integrate “21st century literacies” into future studies and put gender equity at the center of future technology policy.

Very little has been written about gender as a facet of multicultural social studies education in its relation to social studies.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to design and implement a model of cultural-responsiveness within a social studies teacher education program. Specifically, we sought to understand how pre-service grades 6-12 social studies practitioners construct culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in their lesson planning. In addition, we examined the professional barriers that prevented teacher-candidates from actualizing culturally responsive pedagogy. Incorporating a conceptual model of Review, Reflect, and React, 20 teacher candidates in a social studies methods course engaged CRT theory and practice. Thematic analysis of lesson plans and clinical reflections indicated successful proponents of CRT critically analyzed their curriculum, explored the diverse needs of their students, and engaged learners in culturally appropriate social studies pedagogy. Findings also showed that unsuccessful CRT was characterized by a lack of content knowledge, resistance from the cooperating teacher, and a reliance on the textbook materials.

Studies of the representation of women in United States history textbooks, both in number and manner in which they appear, have found women are inequitably represented as compared to their male counterparts and are viewed through a patriarchal lens. This study analyzed a contemporary high school United States history textbook’s representation of women in the Progressive Era compared to an earlier edition textbook. Using their visual representation of women, it was found that the textbooks continued the patriarchal view of women and their roles in society. Although the number of representations of women had slightly increased over time, these additions did not promote a more contemporary view of women's role in history, except in the area of women's rights. Recommendations for future areas of research are made. Some are: monitoring of textbooks for equability, analyzing of textbooks covering U.S. history prior to 1877 for equability in inclusion of women in history, investigating what teachers are doing to compensate for the inequity, determining whether or not state standards are inclusive of women's history, and analyzing how women's history in college level textbooks represent women in history.

This paper addresses our desire to learn more about effective practices with film and our aspiration to promote a more inclusive curriculum. Specifically, we consider how the film Iron Jawed Angels impacted students’ understanding of the American women’s movement, particularly the fight for suffrage by the National Women’s Party, and examines the questions: (a) How can feature films be used to incorporate a close examination of the women’s movement into the curriculum? (b) How do students make sense of the women’s movement when it appears in a feature film during classroom activities? For most students, the film appeared to call important attention to women’s history. The results suggest that feature films with females as main characters or with a narrative based primarily on female perspectives can be used to promote engagement with women’s issues and to promote the inclusion of female perspectives in the secondary curriculum. However, we also found important differences between how female and male students responded to the film.

In this paper, we outline the rationale for developing the Survey of the Status of Social Studies (S4). The instrument contains items for analyzing the organizational structure, instructional decision-making, professional attitudes, and demographics of social studies teachers. Nationally-inclusive data generated from this survey analysis were used to examine the technical and theoretical validity of the instrument. Incorporating factor analysis, findings suggest constructs embedded within S4 related to social studies pedagogy, content emphases, and technology-use that reflect extant theory. As such, the S4 and accompanying nationwide data set offer social educators a valuable resource for fostering professional development and policy.

This study reports on an inductive, qualitative content analysis exploring depictions of the United States and U.S. citizens in translated, international literature for children. The sample included 18 titles recognized with the Batchelder Award or Honor, a recognition given to U.S. publishers who translate and publish outstanding children’s literature with international origins. The study was situated within the framework of cosmopolitanism, a theoretical perspective acknowledging the importance of local values, culture, and traditions while embracing the global and the unfamiliar. Findings revealed depictions of the United States on the local level as a destination, refuge, and glamorized place of diversity. On the global level, the United States was portrayed as a world power with regard to its military, economics, media, and culture. These findings promote perspective taking and critical literacy as they offer a window for U.S. students into how people from other nations perceive their country.

This article examines the work of Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) and Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958), two early 20th century historians and educators who dedicated their professional lives to the study and advancement of Black history and women’s history respectively. In addition to their historical research and prolific publishing, Woodson and Beard devoted significant time and energy advocating an inclusive historical narrative in US schools and colleges. This work focuses on three of their primary goals: (1) challenging and correcting the accuracy of the historical record, (2) using history as a tool for mitigating racial and gender stereotypes, and (3) bringing women’s history and Black history to the public. The article concludes with a discussion of the relevance and usefulness for contemporary educators of strategies used by Beard and Woodson as they sought to correct the historical record and develop curriculum that would engage all students.

If integrating technology means nothing more than enhancing the traditional delivery system of social studies content, where laptops replace notebooks, where PowerPoint slides replace handwritten overheads, where e-textbooks replace hard copy textbooks, then we will be no closer to the NCSS vision of transformative, powerful social studies instruction. (Doolittle & Hicks, 2003, p.75)

From labor conditions to public health and environmental justice, globalization has created an increasingly complex web of issues surrounding human rights. Research in social studies education points to adolescents’ intrinsic curiosity when engaged in these multiple issues, as well as their idealistic thirst for involving themselves in social progress campaigns. Many students desire involvement and believe in the importance of human rights education within the formal educational setting, especially within social studies curriculum. We report the findings from a qualitative study conducted during a two-week intensive summer institute on human rights and genocide studies in western New York in the summer of 2011. In our study, we found while student participants felt empowered by the institute and their desire to take action was heightened during the experience, they questioned the disconnect between the genocide and human rights education in the Institute and the human rights education they experienced in their social studies classrooms. In comparing the two, they wished there were more authentic learning experiences and a higher level of academic rigor in their social studies classes. Although the New York State curricula, at the time of the study, included human rights education related topics, the interviewed student participants did not recognize its presence and felt human rights education is not a prevalent part of the enacted public school curriculum.