Six Credit Hours for Arizona, the United States, and the World: A Case Study of Teacher Content-Knowledge Preparation and the Creation of Social Studies Courses

Abstract

The Teaching Foundations Project, part of a collaborative federally funded initiative, addressed the social studies content-area knowledge of future elementary teachers through the combined efforts of university faculty in teacher education and liberal arts and sciences, along with faculty from community colleges in Arizona. The project developed two courses combining history, political science, geography, and economics. The chapter describes the development, evaluation, piloting, and institutionalization of the courses, highlighting three themes: the opportunities and challenges in aligning different institutions in shared commitments to teacher preparation; resources as a lever for change brings tensions of compliance and cooperation across institutions; and the identification and operationalization of theories about what content and pedagogy future elementary teachers need, particularly when faculty from university in teacher education and liberal arts and sciences, as well as community colleges in Arizona, are all working together.