American Social Studies Research Articles

Legislating whiteness: an emotion discourse analysis of divisive concepts legislation

ABSTRACT This research examines a state-level response to national political movements to decentre whiteness in American social studies education. Aiming to better understand how emotions systemically sustain and build connections to whiteness, this emotion discourse analysis examined how fear and hope shaped the content of and support for legislation mandating a race-evasive approach to teaching in public schools. Fear of what learning about racism might provoke and disrupt was a driving force behind the policy. Despite emotion discourses resisting the policies and identifying the harm such censorship would cause for students and education more broadly, the policy became law laying the foundation for further policy moves to protect whiteness in education spaces. This research highlights the need for social studies curricula that expand students’ capacity to identify and analyse the social and political significance of emotions.

Examining Charles Darwin’s (Mis)representation within science and history curricula

ABSTRACT Teaching and learning are grounded on age-appropriate, credible curricular resources, which can be formal (i.e. textbooks) and informal (i.e. trade-books). As Charles Darwin’s ideas galvanized biology and racism, this study examined his historical representation within trade-books (e.g. biography, narrative non-fiction, expository, etc.), textbooks (student editions, teacher editions, etc.), and curricular supplements (teacher-facing assessments and lessons; student-facing tests and tasks) published in United States. Through content analysis, I contrasted historians’ understandings of Darwin with history-based trade-books’ (n = 111) and biology-oriented texts’ (n = 132) depictions of Darwin. Misrepresentations abounded. History-based books concealed Darwin’s colonialist past and disregarded—or repeated without qualification and context—the racist ideas within his writing. Biology-based texts largely omitted problematic aspects of Darwin’s past. These 20th- and 21st-century history trade-books and science texts mirrored the patterns of 19th-century American social studies textbooks’ Lost Cause logic and 20th-century science American textbooks’ anti-evolution casuistry. Reviewed texts obscured the racist ideas within Darwin’s words, actions, and inactions, through both omission and commission. Concerns are raised about who determines how historical and scientific content are included, detailed, and omitted within curricular resources published in different countries.

Editorial Introduction

Editorial Introduction

Critical political consciousness within nepantla as transformative: The experiences and pedagogy of a Palestinian world history teacher

This case study of a Palestinian American social studies teacher in a predominantly affluent public school in New York City utilizes the Chicana/Latina feminist theoretical concept of nepantla and the literature on teachers of Color in social studies education. This article addresses how her critical political consciousness, identities, and experiences as a teacher of Color influenced the ways she navigated through the Orientalist and Eurocentric social studies curriculum in the United States. Findings show three tensions in her life contributed to the development of her political consciousness and further influenced her teaching through pedagogies of nepantla. This study provides a perspective on how teachers with politicized identities navigate through systems of oppression, including geopolitical realities and school curriculum and infrastructure, by teaching world history from critical perspectives and centering people and civilizations of Color.

The comparison of social studies textbooks in Turkey, the United States and France based on values education

The present study aimed to compare social studies or equivalent course textbooks in Turkey, the United States, and France (ethics-citizenship education) based on values education content. The study was designed with the holistic multi-case method, a qualitative research approach, and the study data were collected with document analysis. The study group was assigned with criterion sampling, a purposive sampling method. The study data were analyzed with the content analysis technique. The study findings were as follows: Value dimensions in the textbooks employed in the three countries were similar in the self-transcendence value dimension in Turkey and France, while self-enhancement value dimension was identified in the US (New York) textbooks. Analysis of the value types identified in the textbooks of the three countries demonstrated that the achievement category was prominent in Turkish and American (New York) textbooks, while universalism-concern value type was observed in France. Modesty value type was observed the least in the USA (New York) and France textbooks. However, the least frequent category was prestige in Turkish textbooks. The instruction approaches that were frequently observed in the textbook learning-instruction processes in the three countries were similar and the value explanation approach was adopted in Turkish and American (New York) social studies and French ethics-citizenship textbooks. The least frequent value instruction approaches in the textbooks were value instruction by observation in Turkish and French textbooks and moral reasoning method in the American (New York) social studies textbooks. Furthermore, American (New York) textbooks did not employ the value instruction by observation approach.

Qué piensa y qué escribe Ernesto Gómez. Su aportación a la Educación para la Ciudadanía Democrática

Education for Democratic Citizenship (ECD) in Spain is a prolific line of research that needs an analysis that contextualizes, how and why the interest of our scientific community arises for this issue and its evolution to this day. The article claims the need for a work of such characteristics and makes visible the role played by Professor Ernesto Gómez in it. We carry out an analysis of his work, with two essential variables in his thinking, the political context and the training-curricular framework of the Social Sciences teachers. The article highlights his contribution to a disciplinary field that he contributed to create, accounting for his educational research, the search for references in North American Social Studies and his defense of ECD. Without hardly realizing it, he collected debates and social themes in his works that would structure the social curriculum, both in the school environment and in the initial training of teachers, helping to consolidate the area of Didactics of Social Sciences.

アメリカの社会科は日本でどのように研究されてきたか ―『社会科研究』を中心に学術研究としての条件を探る ―

アメリカの社会科は日本でどのように研究されてきたか ―『社会科研究』を中心に学術研究としての条件を探る ―

アメリカ社会科成立期におけるコミュニティ参加に関する考察 : アーサー・W・ダンの公民科教育論の実践例に注目して

アメリカ社会科成立期におけるコミュニティ参加に関する考察 : アーサー・W・ダンの公民科教育論の実践例に注目して

Culturally Responsive Teaching in an Oglala Lakota Classroom

ABSTRACTIn response to the widening academic achievement gap between Native American students and other students in the United States, a culturally responsive approach was used in a Native American social studies class with positive results. Eighth-grade Oglala Lakota students in an American History classroom experienced a unit infused with lessons that highlighted Native American culture, history, and values. Students' knowledge, skills, and culture were used as frames of reference for the teacher, enabling students to personally engage with the content and making learning more meaningful. By incorporating culturally responsive teaching practices into the social studies curriculum, teachers not only give students the opportunity to come face to face with multiple perspectives but students are able to come face to face with their own ancestors, bringing history home, and bringing it to life.

The Trend of Interpretations and Research Aims on the History of American Social Studies in the Early 20th Century: Comparison between Japan and USA

The Trend of Interpretations and Research Aims on the History of American Social Studies in the Early 20th Century: Comparison between Japan and USA

Couple and family relationships in Latin American social comparative studies

Couple and family relationships have changed in different aspects in the recent history of Latin America. This paper reviewed comparative studies on couple and family relationships in Latin America published between 2001 and 2015. These studies used data from different countries. The contents analyzed in these investigations were divided in five main themes: (a) family size, structure and diversity; (b) couple and family internal dynamics, including couple and family formation and dissolution, gender and social roles, social care and protection, and couple and family violence; (c) couple, family and health; (d) couple, family and education; and, (e) couple, family and economy. Although comparative studies in Latin America are based mainly on data from national censuses and have a demographic approach, the comparative perspective is proposed as an important mean for the integration of diverse disciplines and the development of international cooperation in studies about couple and family in Latin America. Macro and micro perspectives, as well as quantitative and qualitative data, may complement each other and contribute to a more integrated knowledge about couple and family relationships in the region. Couple and family internal structure and dynamics are related to Latin American society and culture in diverse ways. Some possibilities and suggestions for future investigations are also presented.

Latin American Decolonial Social Studies of Scientific Knowledge

A distinctive form of anticolonial analysis has been emerging from Latin America (LA) in recent decades. This decolonial theory argues that important new insights about modernity, its politics, and epistemology become visible if one starts off thinking about them from the experiences of those colonized by the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas. For the decolonial theorists, European colonialism in the Americas, on the one hand, and modernity and capitalism (and their sciences) in Europe, on the other hand, coproduced and coconstituted each other. The effects of that history persist today. Starting thought from these LA histories and current realities enables envisioning new resources for social transformations. These decolonial insights seem to receive only a passing recognition in the Latin American social studies of science and technology projects that have begun cosponsoring events and publications with northern equivalents. My focus will be primarily on the decolonial theory and on just two of its themes. One is the critical resources it offers for creating more accurate and progressive northern philosophies and histories of science as well as social studies of science. The second is insights from Latin American feminists that carry different impacts in the context of the decolonial accounts.

Friendship in Latin American social comparative studies

Friendship has been traditionally investigated in the field of interpersonal relationships using different theoretical frameworks and approaches. This paper discusses the possibility of investigating friendship from a comparative Latin American perspective, based on a wide literature review on the subject. Based on the theoretical proposals of Hinde (1997) for the investigation of interpersonal relationships, the paper considers that friendship involves several levels of complexity and affects and is affected by distinct dimensions of Latin American society. The paper recognizes that comparative studies have placed the importance of friends and friendship in areas such as economy, health, education, and migration, among others. As expected, Latin American comparative studies are more frequent in some disciplines, mainly those based on censuses data, and theoretically related to social-economic and demographic concepts, including social networks and social capital. The possibility of developing a Latin American perspective for the study of friendship requires not only the need of empirical but also theoretical advances, as well as scientific cooperation and innovation. Friendship is seen as relevant for the constitution of the social tissue of Latin American society, being affected and affecting different areas and levels. In the social economic dimension, friends are relevant, specifically in Latin America, to themes such as poverty and social vulnerability. Some future possibilities for investigation are discussed.

Korean American social studies teachers’ perceptions and experiences of teaching profession in multicultural urban high schools

This study explores two Korean American social studies teachers’ perceptions and experiences of the teaching profession in multicultural, urban public high schools. Drawing upon critical race theory (CRT) and its interconnection to the model minority myth, the most dominant form of racism against Asians as theoretical underpinnings, this study focuses on: (1) Korean American teachers’ unique experiences of being racial minority educators teaching a contentious subject like social studies within culturally and linguistically diverse school settings; and (2) the influences of the model minority racial stereotype on the teachers’ career choice, professional experiences, and associated coping strategies. This study aims to shed light on the heterogeneous stories and ethnoracially contextualized teaching experiences of Asian American teachers and to provide meaningful insights into and practical implications for the preparation and retention of teachers of color.

生徒の多様化に対応するアメリカ社会科成立期のカリキュラム NEA の社会科委員会報告書の分析を中心に

生徒の多様化に対応するアメリカ社会科成立期のカリキュラム NEA の社会科委員会報告書の分析を中心に

Committed to differentiation and engagement: A case study of two American secondary social studies teachers

Abstract This case study examines two 10th-grade US History teachers who collaborated to create and implement an integrated, thematic eight-week unit on war with an emphasis differentiated instruction. Drawing on the National Council for the Social Studies (2010) framework for powerful and purposeful social studies instruction, the case study uses multiple sources of data, including 38 lesson observations, analyses of the teachers' lesson plans and student work, and interviews of teachers. Initially, the teachers were successful at engaging students in simulations, small-group discussions, and higher-order thinking. As the unit progressed, however, the teachers reverted to transmission-style teaching with an emphasis on breadth over depth. Changing teaching practice requires overcoming barriers associated with prior experiences and deeply-held beliefs about teaching and learning.

El barrio popular en Bogotá en las voces de sus protagonistas. Madres comunitarias y jardineras: 1980-2011, Usme y Ciudad Bolívar.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17227/01234870.38folios121.140This paper presents the results of a study about women’s role in poor neighborhoods, basically from their work in childcare initiatives. The study was carried out as a master’s thesis in the Social Studies program at National Pedagogical University in Bogota, Colombia, and can be inscribed in the context of Latin American social studies about working class neighborhoods. These studies have documented the emergence of conflicts and struggles as a consequence of a hasty and complex urban modernizing project –i.e. the very big mass of people not absorbed by the labor or house framework planned for the development and growth of the cities in the region during the twentieth century. In this complex environment women emerge as important actors who have played a significant role to solve pressing situations in new settlements, such as feeding families and caring children.

The Reporting of the September 11 th Terrorist Attacks in American Social Studies Textbooks: A Muslim Perspective

This study analyzes the reporting of the September 11 th terrorist attacks in social studies textbooks from a Muslim perspective and reports on findings from a study of the responses of American Muslim children to the treatment of the events of September 11 th in social studies textbooks. Constructivist grounded theory was used to centralize the participant's perspective in the readings of social studies textbooks leading to emergent themes that developed into a theoretical framework about basic social processes within the reading. Propaganda-making is suggested here as a theoretical conceptualization of the processes undertaken by textbook authors, and the category "Muslim reactions" is suggested as a typology of Muslim responses to these characterizations. Exploring how readers engage with the text and how the text engages with the reader in the construction of knowledge, the framework developed in the study can be used to inform a culturally relevant pedagogy and curricula in the teaching of 9/11 in social studies classrooms.

Debating globalization in social studies education: approaching globalization historically and discursively

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dominant positions in the debates on globalization in American social studies education. Specifically, the paper illustrates that, first, globalization is conceived of as more of an unprecedented new age and less of a historical development. Second, it is conceived of as more of a natural process and less as an ideological project. All in all, this paper argues that globalization should be approached as a historic and discursive condition in the field of social studies education. To do so, educators should include more skeptical perspectives and critical voices about globalization. Also, they need to approach the vocabulary used to frame globalization discursively, rather than as an objective fact. The paper contends that the different positions taken in the debates on globalization are part and parcel of the social imaginary of globalization. The paper has ramifications not only for American social studies education but also for related subjects such as civics and citizenship education elsewhere.

Global Pollution Needs a Local Solution Russian and American Middle School Students Participate in a Videoconference

This paper discusses how Russian and American social studies educators utilized a videoconference for engaging middle school students in the study of environmental issues. The preparation for the videoconference required Russian and American students to explore human-environmental interactions in their local areas and to evaluate the impact of these interactions on the local and global environment. Students shared findings of their exploration with their counterparts in Russia during a videoconference that culminated the project. The authors discussed the preparation, administration, and outcomes of the project and included the instructional materials. The authors believe their reflective ideas provide insights on the use of videoconferencing as a means of enhancing student learning in a social studies classroom.