Figured World of History Learning in a Social Studies Methods Classroom

Abstract

This paper considers how one teacher educator, Dr. Gomez, took up revisionist history and inquiry in her social studies methods classroom. The concepts of figured worlds (Holland et al.. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Boston: The MIT Press] are used to present a case study. The study focuses on the artifacts that made up the figured world of history learning in Dr. Gomez's social studies methods class and the learner identities aorded by this context. The purpose of this study is two-fold: (a) explore how teacher education classes can recruit primarily white, middle class students into a figured world of history learning that is culturally congruent with urban settings, and (b) demonstrate the application of the figured worlds framework to the study of learning in a teacher preparation program.

Interpreting Early Career Trajectories

“…The study presented here draws significant parallels to applications of figured worlds in the work of Sloan (2006), C. Robinson (2007), and Ma and Singer-Gabella (2011), each of whom addressed the manner in which teachers and teacher candidates interacted with and were able to “figure themselves” into teaching contexts.…”

“…Fecho, Graham, and Hudson-Ross (2005) note that people appear to occupy many figured worlds simultaneously “with each of those figured worlds flavoring experience in any other” (p. 178). In situating themselves in these figured worlds, individuals sometimes experience “dissonance” (C. Robinson, 2007, p. 205).…”

‘I’m not racist; my high school was diverse!’ white preservice teachers deploydiversityin the classroom

“…Specifically, I rely on the work of Holland et al (1998) who propose the figured world, 'a socially and culturally constructed realm of interpretation in which particular characters and actors are recognized, significance is assigned to certain acts, and particular outcomes are valued over others ' (52). A figured world is at once both collective and individual; it is a stable, shared, idealised way of interpreting the surrounding world (Michael, Andrade, and Bartlett 2007;Robinson 2007). Figured worlds are located in particular historical and social settings and they are recreated through the interactions of the people who inhabit them.…”

Youth Empowerment in Context: Exploring Tensions in School‐Based yPAR

“…The norms and values that underlie teacher roles are entrenched elements of the school as a system, reinforced and reproduced through ongoing patterns of interaction between students, teachers, administrators, parents, and the community that support the maintenance of such structures (Gee 2000(Gee -2001. Teachers who resist the traditional teacher identity sanctioned by the educational institution ''risk being seen as eccentric, if not outrageous'' (Zembylas 2003, p. 226), and can face recrimination from other teachers, administration, parents, the community, and even students (Robinson 2007).…”