Studies Methods Course Research Articles

Developing notions of place in an undergraduate elementary social studies methods course

PurposePlace-based, social studies teaching and learning has the potential to foster engaged citizens connected and committed to improving their communities. This study explored the research question, “In what ways do classroom and field-based experiences prepare teacher candidates (TCs) to make connections between place-based education and elementary social studies education?”Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative case study examined how elementary TCs learned about, researched, curated and created place-based social studies educational resources related to community sites. Data collection included TCs’ Pre- and Post-Course Reflections as well as Self-Evaluations, which were analyzed using an inductive approach and multiple rounds of concept coding. Several themes emerged through data analysis.FindingsThe authors organized their findings around three themes: connections (i.e. place becomes personal), immersion (i.e. learning about place to learning in place) and bridge building (i.e. local as classroom). The classroom and field-based experiences in the elementary social studies methods course informed the ways in which TCs learned about and connected to the concept of place, experienced place in a specific place (i.e. downtown Statesboro, Georgia), and reflected upon the myriad ways that they could utilize place in their future elementary social studies classrooms.Originality/valueTCs (as well as in-service teachers and teacher educators) must become more informed, connected and committed to places within their local communities in order to consider them as resources for elementary social studies teaching and learning.

Emphasizing the professional in PDS

PurposeThis article describes an effort to ease the tension between boundary spanning roles for interns participating in a yearlong Professional Development School (PDS) program. In order to do this, the structure of a Social Studies Methods course was revised to mimic a professional learning community (PLC) and assignments were not evaluated for grades.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual paper that relies on self-reflection as well as student reaction, work samples and survey data.FindingsThe findings demonstrate both practices contribute to a collegial and less stressful environment for interns, while not affecting the quality of work submitted.Originality/valueThis paper highlights two of the nine NAPDS essentials, Professional Learning and Leading (3) and Boundary Spanning (8), and describes the ways both are incorporated and addressed in a PDS situated methods course. Describing course revisions, including the implementation of an ungrading practice, provides examples for potential replication.

Reel critical: using film to teach Indigenous studies in the elementary classroom

PurposeFilm has long been an instructional tool in social studies education; however, most research and methods for using film to teach social studies are situated at the secondary level. As such, the purpose of this study was to extend and expand what is known about using film in elementary social studies classrooms. More specifically, this qualitative content analysis study explored how and why elementary pre-service teachers (PSTs) used film clips from Molly of Denali to design critical Indigenous studies lessons. The data offer insight into the possibilities of using film as a strategy to teach anti-oppressive elementary social studies education.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used qualitative content analysis in this study. Data for this study included 17 lesson planning assignments and corresponding written rationales completed by PSTs in an elementary social studies methods course. Data collected as a result of convenience sampling, given both the authors were the instructors of the methods course. To analyze the data, the authors used a multi-step coding process and a combination of inductive and deductive coding.FindingsGrounded in a framework of anti-oppressive and anti-colonial education, PSTs designed elementary social studies lessons that used film clips from Molly of Denali to increase representation, center a counter-narrative and serve as a motivator. PSTs also infused other sources into their lesson plans, thus extending their lessons beyond the film.Originality/valueGiven the lack of research on how film can be used in elementary social studies classrooms, this study fills a void in the literature. Results of this study suggest that similar to the benefits of using film in secondary classrooms, film can be an engaging and motivating source of information for elementary students. Moreover, when used within a critical pedagogical framework like Sabzalian's (2019) critical orientations of Indigenous studies, film can increase representation and teach anti-oppressive counter-narratives in the elementary classroom.

“There’s something wrong in society”: Teaching for racial civic literacy using young adult fiction

ABSTRACT This multiple case study traced how secondary preservice social studies teachers grappled with understanding race/racism in their reading of the novel, All American Boys. Participants, all self-identified as white, consisted of two cohorts of students who attended a large midwestern university and were enrolled in an advanced social studies methods course. Drawing on notions of racial civic literacy, we analyzed participants’ responses to the novel, especially as it related to the police officer character who committed racial violence on an unarmed Black youth. We asked whether the officer’s actions were racist. Findings showed that participants reacted to the officer’s actions in three ways: calling-out race/ism, justifying his actions, and distancing from making judgments. Participants who called out Officer Galluzzo’s actions as racism saw this character as symbolic of larger systemic issues in society, whereas those who sought to justify Galluzzo’s actions demonstrated faith in public institutions, such as policing and the court system. Finally, those who distanced themselves claimed to be in a space of neutrality. Results of the study suggest that faith in public institutions, often considered a hallmark of the civic mission of schooling, may be at odds with fostering racial civic literacy.

Teaching to (un)learn: enacting social justice in the identity development of multilingual/Latinx/BIPOC teacher candidates

PurposeThis paper aims to describe how engaging in an inquiry-as-stance reflexive approach informed the design of a graduate-level early childhood social studies methods course to support the professional identity development of multilingual/Latinx, Black, Indigenous, people of color (ML/L/BIPOC) teacher candidates.Design/methodology/approachNested within a theoretical construct that articulates “unlearning as a disruptive force” (Dunne, 2016), the author used a parallel process that modeled the teaching of social studies methods grounded in critical reflections of students’ cultural and linguistic assets. In so doing, the author shares how she models culturally and linguistically responsive-sustaining pedagogy in practice.FindingsThe findings illustrate that in this course, students begin unlearning internalized deficit narratives that they have been socialized to believe about themselves and, often, their students.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on only four semesters of teaching one graduate-level methods course to ML/L/BIPOC early childhood educators at one institution, research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.Originality/valueThrough unlearning, ML/L/BIPOC learn to recognize their assets, dispositions, skills and capacities more fully and, thus, are more able to enact culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy once in their own classrooms. As such, this study has value for applying critical, identity-centered and asset-based pedagogies in teacher preparation programs.

We need a curricular cooperative: envisioning a future beyond teachers paying teachers

ABSTRACT The curriculum marketplace Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) claims that 85% of educators in the United States use the site. Despite substantial evidence that TPT offers low quality materials, little research has explored the impact of TPT on curriculum-making. We analyze 76 TPT seller sites from assignments submitted by teacher candidates in an elementary social studies methods course to understand how teacher education candidates encounter and make sense of TPT. We observe that TPT produces siloed ‘one-stop shops’ that attempt to capture users’ attention, discouraging the kind of legitimate peripheral participation and resource sharing described by the proponents of ‘teacherpreneurship.’ We offer an alternative model of curricular supplementation that builds on the affordances of platform technologies.

Design Thinking: How Preservice Teachers Develop Capacity for Designing Inquiry-Based Lessons

This study examines how elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) develop the capacity to design inquiry-based lessons in social studies and how this capacity changes over time. Using convergent parallel mixed methods, the findings indicate that PSTs had inherent and varied content design approaches fitting their perception of lesson design as they attended the social studies methods course. PSTs developed and improved their pedagogical design capacity for inquiry-based lessons when engaged in designing lesson plans. However, teachers’ interactions with specific curricular, personal, and contextual resources affected how they developed an understanding of inquiry methods and the extent of their competence to construct inquiry lesson plans. The implications highlight a priority for educators to develop educationally sound design thinking and critical reflection on design ability among PSTs.

Instruction: examining elementary preservice teachers' self-efficacy for designing inquiry

PurposeThis study seeks to understand the factors and orientations that are relevant to preservice teachers' (PSTs) beliefs about their ability to design lessons for inquiry-based K-6 social studies instruction.Design/methodology/approachSeventy elementary PSTs participated in a series of inquiry-based learning activities in a social studies methods course. The study uses exploratory factor analysis, a quantitative method to explore teacher self-reported efficacy for designing inquiry lessons.FindingsThe findings revealed that three capabilities related to design are relevant to elementary social studies PSTs' self-efficacy for designing inquiries: lesson design competence, lesson design disposition and lesson design practices. Most PSTs expressed low self-efficacy in all three capabilities. PSTs with a higher disposition for designing inquiry lessons may show a strong sense of self-efficacy for inquiry-based curricula design and practice in elementary social studies education.Originality/valueThe article discusses the importance of understanding PSTs sense of efficacy and categories of such self-efficacy beliefs at the level of lesson design within the context of teacher education. It discusses the need for teacher educators to facilitate educationally sound critical reflection on lesson design skills, disposition and practices that foster PSTs' sense of ability to teach via inquiry in elementary classrooms.

Developing accountability and responsibility: How teacher candidates experience and conceptualize community-based pedagogy in the social studies

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the use of community-based pedagogy in a social studies methods course to encourage teacher candidates to initiate similar practices in the classroom. Through a culturally sustaining framework, community-based pedagogy encourages teacher candidates to center the assets, knowledge, and experiences of students, families, and local communities in social studies education. This critical qualitative research project examines the possibilities and complexities of teacher candidates conceptualizing, experiencing, and practicing community-based pedagogy in social studies education. The findings demonstrate how the use of community-based pedagogy in teacher preparation may expand the aim and scope of social studies. The implications discuss how teacher educators may collaborate with students, families, school district partners, and intergenerational community members in developing community-based teacher preparation in social studies and beyond.

“Glossed over and missing”: Preservice teachers learn about slavery in Canada

ABSTRACT The more than 200 years of chattel slavery in Canada is an example of the country’s occluded history predicated on structural racism. This study of preservice elementary teachers in a social studies methods course helps to reveal how the history of Black enslavement in Canada has been effectively erased from the national consciousness. Using a symbolic interactionism/grounded theory methodology, I seek to make meaning from more than 70 preservice teachers’ written responses to a reading on slavery and abolition in Canada. This study’s findings help reveal some of the challenges to, and possibilities for, interrogating historical consciousness and national identity narratives as a process of learning within the contexts of methods courses.

You Can’t Be A Nice White Lady and Do Anti-Racism Work: A Self-Study On Teaching Against Racism

ABSTRACT As a social studies teacher educator in the United States, it is crucial that I work to better understand myself and my teaching in regard to anti-racism. As a community, we need to study ourselves both as individuals and as programs to better ourselves as teacher educators who care deeply about racial justice, both for our own students and for our students’ students. Using two semesters of data, this self-study looks critically at the ways in which the white social contract and my own socialization impact how I do and do not teach against racism in my early childhood social studies methods course.

Building community using experiential education with elementary preservice teachers in a social studies methodology course

There is urgency for teacher educators to instruct preservice teachers in the tenants of social justice education. This urgency is based upon the American demographic landscape and the responsibility of educators to teach for social justice. Preservice teachers report feeling inadequately prepared to educate for social justice when entering the classroom setting (citations from below). Feelings of incompetence in social justice teaching expressed among preservice teachers coupled with minimal examination in the literature of the effects of teacher education practices that aid in the readiness to teach for social justice provided the foundation for this study. This study examined experiential methodologies that can prepare preservice teachers to teach for social justice, particularly within a social studies context. The study focused on two research questions: (a) How do preservice elementary teachers in a social studies methods course conceptualize teaching for social justice within an experiential framework? (b) In what ways did preservice teachers operationalize teaching for social justice in the practicum classroom? Also examined was how the development of community in a social studies methodology course fostered the understanding of teaching for social justice. The findings highlight how preservice teachers were able to conceptualize building communities with experiential methods to teach for social justice and how doing so created an effective learning community. Although the preservice teachers valued the implementation of experiential methods to foster the teaching of social justice, difficulties were expressed in their incorporation of experiential methods in the practicum environment due to a lack of confidence, teaching competence, or collegial support.

Teaching and learning with morning meeting in elementary social studies methods courses

PurposeUsing morning meeting, an evidence-based practice that is part of the responsive classroom (RC) approach, the authors (two teacher educators [TEs]) created opportunities for teacher candidates (TCs) to experience representations, decompositions and approximations of practice in multiple iterations of an elementary social studies methods course.Design/methodology/approachThe authors detail how TEs can expose TCs to social studies content (e.g. the National Council for the Social Studies themes) that can be incorporated into structured, daily classroom routines, such as morning meeting.FindingsThe authors include TE-created morning meeting facilitation guides with components such as a morning message, greeting, share, group activity and theme justification. Furthermore, the authors outline TCs' reflections on planning and implementing a morning meeting with a partner in addition to their own reflections on the TCs' feedback.Originality/valueThis work has implications related to TEs and TCs in elementary social studies methods courses as well as current and future students in elementary classrooms.

The doors they choose: Solutions to “The Lady or the Tiger”

We consider the extent that elementary preservice teachers enrolled in a social studies methods course expressed empathy for story characters when solving the story’s emotionally ladened problem. We believe that the manner by which these students resolved one character’s dilemma informs about the nature of their own emotions. Participants read Frank Stockton’s story, “The Lady and the Tiger” toward the beginning and at the conclusion of the semester. The data represented all student responses to the prompt, “Read the short story at the following link. To what door do you think the princess directed the accused? What is the reason for your choice?” Forty-two students completed both reflections of the reading. The analysis found that in their initial reflections, a solid majority of students selected the tiger. At the end of the course, this percentage decreased to a smaller majority. Analysis of the six students who changed their perspectives of the princess’s decision found that five referenced course experiences in their explaining the reason for change. This paper fills a gap in social studies research about emotions and decision-making. Additional research needs to interpret the specific nature of these emotions and the conditions that influence them.

Empowering Teacher Candidates to Create Social Justice Curriculum Through Civic Engagement Projects

The purpose of this research is to examine how participating in a Civic Engagement Project (CEP) led teacher candidates (TCs) to develop and publish race and social justice curriculum. This article describes the CEP, a graduate level social studies methods course assignment for TCs who research community issues, select a class project, collaborate, create and publish resources for educators. This mixed-methods study examines the challenges, benefits and process of the CEP. TCs' reflections, digital curriculum and resourcesthey created, surveys and interviews with TCs after graduation were analyzed through six criteria of anti-racist curriculum, based on Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Critical Race Theory. The intent of this longitudinal research is to analyze the long-term development of social studies teachers across their experiences with civic engagement as pre-service and subsequently in-service teachers.

Using Book Tasting in the Academic Library: A Tale of Children’s Literature, Collaboration, and an Increased Appetite for Books

This qualitative action research study investigated the influence that participating in a book tasting had on Pre K-4 pre-service teachers in their social studies methods course. The findings indicated that book tasting helped pre-service teachers to conceptualize what a text set is, learn how to create one using library resources, and incorporate quality children’s literature successfully into lesson plans that are designed to meet the NCSS standards using the NCSS themes and the C3 Framework. The findings also indicated that book tastings changed the attitudes and perceptions that pre-service teachers had about using children’s literature to teach content Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2021.1965685.

From “Social Justice Vacant” to “Social Justice Explicit”: An Analysis of How Elementary Pre-service Teachers Imagine Teaching about COVID-19

ABSTRACT As the COVID-19 pandemic invaded our lives in March of 2020, schools were forced to close their doors and urgently transition to remote learning. This action research study is about pre-service elementary teachers (PSTs) in a social justice-focused social studies methods course who used this unprecedented time as valid curricular material. While adjusting to life in lockdown, PSTs created inquiries about COVID-19 for elementary students. Analysis of these inquiries revealed curricula that could be envisioned along a social justice spectrum. Some were “social justice vacant,” others offered a “social justice nod,” a handful waded in a bit further demonstrating a “social justice curious” stance, and two of the inquiries were “social justice explicit.” This spectrum is discussed and offers implications for teacher education related to the action research implementation and reflection.

Engaging With Difficult Knowledge of U.S. Wars in Elementary Social Studies Methods Course

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the need to understand teaching and learning not just as cognitive but also as affective experiences that are imbued with emotional complexity. There is also an emergent body of research on how to teach difficult knowledge of war. Joining this scholarship, this article presents research findings on how preservice teachers feel and experience difficult knowledge of World War II in the Philippines when they are encouraged to develop emotional self-awareness in the learning encounter, reconsider the dominant narratives on war, and reflect on their implication in response to difficult knowledge of war as a future teacher. The findings inform pedagogical conditions that may be beneficial if we are to engage preservice teachers with difficult knowledge of war and guide them to contemplate how they are implicated in their learning to become a critical teacher.

“I’d Say I Have a Bit of Work to Do”: Exploring Elementary Social Studies Pre-Service Teacher Criticality through PhotoVoice

Elementary pre-service teacher education offers important insights in terms of how teachers understand and develop criticality surrounding self-reflexivity, interaction with social studies content, and pedagogy. This study applied critical self-authorship frameworks, Freire's theory of conscientisation, and PhotoVoice methodology to explore pre-service teachers' self-awareness of their developing professional identities as situated within an elementary social studies methods course. Broadly, the study explored the question, How does critical examination of our identities shape our understandings of elementary social studies education? Results demonstrate an emerging awareness of the influence of personal history and experience, place, and multiple perspectives on learning and teaching social studies, but a need for more comprehensive and sustained attention to criticality throughout entire teacher preparation programs is needed to achieve self-transformation and antiracist/anticolonial pedagogy. These results offer theoretical and practical guidance for thinking about critical social studies elementary teaching and teacher education.

Critical History Monographs and Intersectionality in Social Studies: A Case From Enslavement

With a focus on methods courses, this article makes a case for social studies teacher educators to employ in their pedagogy an intersectional perspective. I ask social studies teacher educators to consider critical history monographs, specialized book-length studies that center on marginalized perspectives, as pedagogical tools that complement primary sources. Elevating scholarship on enslaved females in the U.S., I highlight affordances and the utility of intersectionality as a generative analytic for use in social studies methods courses. I illustrate how social studies teacher educators can better prepare their students to teach from an intersectional perspective that more fully humanizes multiply oppressed peoples in U.S. history. This discussion has implications for secondary social studies, teacher education, and history education.