How secondary social studies teachers define literacy and implement literacy teaching strategies: A qualitative research study

Abstract

Educational standards have changed rapidly and drastically in the past several years, including an increased focus on literacy within the social studies. Using data from a four-month qualitative study, this article examines how seven secondary social studies teachers talked about and defined literacy, and how those perspectives informed their pedagogical choices. The enquiry is a response to two areas: first, the many and varied definitions of literacy found in the literature (for example, content area literacy, multiliteracies and media literacy); and second, the added attention given to disciplinary literacy in the widely adopted Common Core State Standards. We found these teachers had four common elements when talking about and defining literacy: (1) reading comprehension; (2) writing fluidity; (3) skills; and (4) vocabulary. Additionally, we discovered that teachers discussed using four kinds of literacy teaching strategies: (1) content area reading strategies; (2) disciplinary reading strategies; (3) writing strategies; and (4) dialogue strategies. However, we determined that the teachers' theoretical understanding of literacy had only minor influence on their pedagogical choices. Instead, we found overarching assessments such as an end-of-course, advanced placement or state-wide reading exam had greater influence on the pedagogical choices the teachers made. The findings suggest that the effort to expand literacy instruction into the disciplines is still a work in progress, which falls in the hands of teacher educators and professional development providers.

Disciplinary Literacy Development in the ESP Context: Ukrainian case

“…Another range of components of the disciplinary literacy in social studies are the skills in: 1) reading; (2) writing; (3) pragmaticy; and (4) vocabulary (Kenna et al, 2018). We also suggest that vocabulary often makes the specificity of the scope of disciplinary literacy.…”

“Living in These Two Places Really Shaped My Life”: Examining Multimodal Playlist Assignments in Social Studies and Language Arts Methods Courses

“…The playlist assignment demonstrates to TCs how SS and ELA naturally complement one another to serve both disciplines (Kenna et al, 2018; Macphee & Whitecotten, 2011; Sibbett & Au, 2018). This learning opportunity is essential within methods courses to model for TCs how a specific assignment might disrupt the standardization of interdisciplinary SS and ELA (Field et al, 2011; Heafner, 2018).…”

The Influence of Cultural and Citizenship Literacy on Students’ Critical Thinking Skill

“…Kenna et al also reinforces these findings by suggesting that literacy (in addition to the aspects of reading and writing as well as an understanding of the IPS a s school subject) has led students to some following phases, namely: analysis , synthesis, questioning, argumentation and critical thinking. 40 In addition, Suardana et al also finds that students who are literate on local culture, tend to have a higher critical thinking skill. 41 Local cultural literacy also supports the improvement of literacy, such as reading and writing literacy, numeracy literacy, scientific literacy, digital literacy, and financial literacy in forming critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.…”