Secondary-level social studies pedagogical planning to inclusive practices : how prepared are our teacher candidates to work in today's 21st century inclusive high school classroom

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This research study looked at how three high school preservice social studies teachers, from three different teacher training programs, were prepared to teach in today's 21st century inclusive high school classroom. As today's high school classroom becomes more academically and culturally diverse, social studies teachers need to deliberate on questions of content (what to teach?), method (how to teach?), and value (what is important to teach?) towards reaching all students, both with and without disabilities. The study's results indicated high school social studies preservice teachers are unprepared to engage students with various academic levels, especially students with disabilities. As the high school social studies content becomes more complex, social studies preservice teachers struggle to meet the needs of all their students when engaging them in high order thinking or historical reasoning skills, like contextualizing primary sources or engaging in inquiry-based activities. The finding also indicated the need for social studies education programs to incorporating more inclusive practices and collaboration with special education. Secondary-level social studies teachers need to learn how to teach their content lessons from a more proactive universal design approach, like the Universal Design for Learning framework. When learning barriers are recognized and addressed within the curriculum design, students become more motivated towards engaging in the content and becoming self-determined learners. As the 21st-century high school classroom become more academically diverse, social studies education programs must provide their teacher candidates with the necessary tools to develop lesson plans where all students engage in a barrierfree learning environment.