Social Studies, Citizenship Education, and the Search for an American Identity: An Argument against a Unifying Narrative

Journell, Wayne

doi:10.2307/jthought.46.3-4.5

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Four of the five of us identify as white and three of us work in a school with a predominantly white student body. While we are aware that some educators in similar demographics feel that multi-cultural curriculum becomes less important (Journell, 2011), we consider that in such a context where students and teachers alike have fewer organic interactions with cultures and communities beyond their own (Malta and Rosa, 2019), the importance is heightened.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The shifted focus to standardized testing, with an emphasis on other curricular areas, took a toll on social studies teaching; many teachers feel they do not have the time to deliver highquality social studies instruction (Thacker et al, 2018;Krueger, 2019;Journell, 2009Journell, , 2011. Such temporal constraints are exacerbated by limited content about Native American history in textbooks and curricular materials provided to teachers (Masta and Rosa, 2019).…”

Section: Teaching Native History To Utah Fourth Gradementioning

confidence: 99%

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Accurate, age-appropriate and sensitive: reconsidering how to teach the Utah Studies fourth grade social studies core

Mecham

Newell

Rhodes

et al. 2021

SSRP

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PurposeUsing integrated, constructivist and inquiry-based curricular experiences to expand student understanding of historical thinking and exposure to Native perspectives on Utah history, this paper aims to analyze the thinking and practice of teaching the Utah fourth grade social studies curriculum. As a team of researchers, teachers and administrators, the authors brought differing perspectives and experience to this shared project of curriculum design. The understanding was enhanced as the authors reflected on authors' own practitioner research and worked together as Native and non-Native community partners to revise the ways one group of fourth grade students experienced the curriculum, with plans to continue improving the thinking and implementation on an ongoing basis. While significant barriers to elementary social studies education exist in the current era of high-stakes testing, curriculum narrowing and continuing narratives of colonization in both the broad national context and our own localized context, the authors found that social studies curriculum can be a space for decolonization and growth for students and teachers alike when carefully planned, constructed and implemented.Design/methodology/approachThis article represents an effort by a team of teachers, administrators and researchers: D, a councilman and historian dedicated to sharing the history of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation; S, an eleventh-year teacher, teaching fourth grade at Mary Bethune Elementary School (MBES); E, the director of experiential learning and technology at MBES; L, the MBES vice principal and EL, a faculty member in the adjacent college of education. Working in these complementary roles, each authors recognized an opportunity to build a more robust set of curricular experiences for teaching the state standards for fourth grade social studies, with particular attention to a more inclusive set of narratives of Utah's history at the authors' shared site, Mary Bethune Elementary School, a K-6 public charter school that operates in partnership with the College of Education in a growing college town (population 51,000) in the Intermountain west. The complexity of Utah history embedded within the landscape that surrounds MBES has not always been a fully developed part of our fourth grade curriculum. Recognizing this, the authors came together to develop a more robust age-appropriate curricular experience for students that highlights the complexity of the individual and cultural narratives. In addition to smaller segments of classroom instruction devoted to the Utah Core fourth grade standards (Utah Education Network, 2019) that focus particularly on the history of Utah, the authors focused the curriculum improvement efforts on four specific lengthy spans of instruction.FindingsThese fourth-grade students read, contextualized and interpreted the primary source documents they encountered as historians; they both appreciated and challenged the authors' perspectives. It is our belief that students are more likely to continue to think like historians as they operate as “critical consumers” (Moore and Clark, 2004, p. 22) of other historical narratives. This ability to think and act with attention to multiple viewpoints and perspectives, power and counter stories develops more empathetic humans. While the authors prize the ability of students to succeed in intellectually rigorous tasks and learn content material, in the end this trait is the most important goal for teaching students history.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors recognize operating within primarily non-Native spaces and discourses about social studies; with curricular efforts, there are a variety of ways the authors could do harm. Along the way, the authors recognized places for future improvement, critically examining the authors' work. As the authors look to future planning, there are several issues identified as the next spaces that the authors wish to focus on improving the Utah Studies curriculum experience of fourth graders at MBES. This is an area for further exploration.Practical implicationsThis precise set of primary sources, field experiences and assessments will not be the right fit for other classrooms with differences in resources, space and time. The authors hope it will serve as an example of how teachers can create curriculum that addresses the failings of status quo social studies instruction with regard to Indigenous peoples. The students were not the only beneficiaries of change from this curriculum development and implementation; as a team the authors also benefited. The experience solidified our self-perception as decision makers for our classroom. The authors' ability to extend past the packaged curriculum of textbooks and worksheets made it easily available to engage students as historical inquirers into the multiple perspectives and complex contexts of decolonizing-counter narratives built the authors' confidence that such work can be successful across the curriculum.Social implicationsThe authors believe this is a more potent antidote to the colonizing-Eurocentric narratives of history that they will undoubtedly be exposed to in other spaces and times than simply teaching them a singular history from an Indigenous perspective; if students are able to contextualize, interpret, and question the accounts they encounter, they will be more likely to “challenge dominant historical and cultural narratives that are endemic in society” (Stoddard et al., 2014, p. 35). This too can make them more thoughtful consumers of today's news, whether that news is about Navajo voting rights in southeastern Utah or oil and gas development in South Dakota.Originality/valueWorking against the colonizing narratives present in media, textbooks and local folklore is necessary if the authors are to undermine the invisibility of Native experiences in most social studies curriculum (Journell, 2009) and the stereotyping and discrimination that Native American students experience as a result (Stowe, 2017, p. 243). This detailed look at how the authors developed and implemented standards-based curriculum with that intent adds to the “little research [that] exists on teacher-created curricula and discourse” (Masta and Rosa, p. 148).

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Teaching Native History To Utah Fourth Gradementioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate, age-appropriate and sensitive: reconsidering how to teach the Utah Studies fourth grade social studies core

Mecham

Newell

Rhodes

et al. 2021

SSRP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, in studies with minority youth, Epstein (2000Epstein ( , 2009 found that minority, immigrant, and refugee groups did not feel that a single, unified national narrative speaks to them, potentially contributing to negative attitudes toward school and society. Despite these warnings from civic education scholars, and despite an increasingly diverse U.S. society via immigration, U.S. schools tend to perpetuate a civic republicanism model of democratic citizenship education (Journell, 2011).…”

Section: Civic Education For and With Immigrant Studentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asset-Based Civics for, With, and by Immigrant Students: Three Sites of Enriched Teaching and Learning for Immigrant and Native-Born Students

Hilburn

2015

Theory & Research in Social Education

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“…Bir ülkenin fiziki coğrafya özelliklerinin o coğrafyada yaşanan siyasi oluşumlar ve gelişmeler üzerindeki belirleyici rolü de yine coğrafya konularının öğretiminin ne denli önemli olduğuna kanıttır (Akengin, 2013 (Doğanay, 2004;Martorella, 1998, Akt. Öztürk ve Dilek, 2004Journell, 2011;Risinger, 1997Akt. Howe ve Marshall, 1999Bayır, 2016;Giacomo, 2015;Ahrari, Othman, Hassan, Samah, ve Lawrence 2013).…”

Section: Sosyal Bilgiler öğRetmenlerinin Bu Dersin öğRetim Programınıunclassified

“…Nitekim, alanyazında, Sosyal Bilgilerin kuramsal temellerinin Sosyal Bilgiler dersinin önemi ve gerekliliği açısından değerlendirildiğinde, bu dersin bireyin yaşadığı hayatı daha iyi anlamlandırabilmesine yönelik birtakım becerilere sahip olacak şekilde eğitimini ve böylece demokratik değerlerle donatılmış etkili ve katılımcı vatandaşlar olarak yetişmelerini amaçladığı görülmektedir (Doğanay, 2004;Martorella, 1998, Akt. Öztürk ve Dilek, 2004Journell, 2011;Risinger, 1997Akt. Howe ve Marshall, 1999Bayır, 2016;Giacomo, 2015;Ahrari, Othman, Hassan, Samah, ve Lawrence 2013).…”

Section: Sosyal Bilgiler öğRetmenlerinin Mülteci öğRenciler Ile İlgili öğRetim Etkinliklerine İlişkin Görüşleriunclassified

Sosyal Bi̇lgi̇ler Öğretmenleri̇ Perspekti̇fi̇nden Mülteci̇ Öğrenci̇ler

Uğurlu

Akdovan²

2019

Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi

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ÖZBu araştırmanın amacı, Sosyal Bilgiler öğretmenlerinin, kendi dersleri bağlamında mülteci öğrenciler hakkındaki görüşlerini tespit etmektir. Çalışma grubu, uygun örnekleme yöntemine göre seçilmiş olup, toplam 11 Sosyal Bilgiler öğretmeni araştırmaya dahil edilmiştir. Yapılan araştırmada veriler, nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme tekniği kullanılarak elde edilmiştir. Verilerin çözümlenmesinde ise betimsel analiz yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmadan elde edilen en önemli bulgular, Sosyal Bilgiler öğretmenlerinin mülteci öğrencilerin en fazla dil yetersizlikleri ve kültürel farklılıkları ile ilgili farkındalıklara sahip olmaları, kendileri açısından mülteci öğrencilerin derse aktif katılımları ve sınıf içi iletişimlerini bir sorun olarak görmeleri, Sosyal Bilgiler dersini mülteci öğrencilerin özellikle ülkemiz hakkında bilgi edinmeleri ve toplumsal hayatımızı öğrenmeleri açısından gerekli olduğunu düşünmeleri, mülteci öğrenciler dikkate alınarak sınıf içi ve sınıf dışı birtakım faaliyetler için çaba göstermeleri ve Sosyal Bilgiler öğretim programını mülteci öğrencilerin bu derse entegrasyonları açısından yetersiz olarak değerlendirmeleri şeklindedir. ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to determine the opinions of Social Studies teachers about refugee students in the context of their own courses.The study group was selected according to the appropriate sampling method and a total of 11 Social Studies teachers were included in the research. Research data was obtained by using a semi-structured interview technique from qualitative research methods. A descriptive analysis method was used for the processing of the data. The most important findings from the survey are that Social Studies teachers have an awareness of refugee students' language deficiencies and their cultural differences. They see that refugee students have a problem with active participation in classes and in-class communication. They think that the Social Studies course is necessary for refugee students in order to learn about Turkey and to learn about Turkish society. Efforts are made for activities within and outside the classroom, taking refugee students' needs into account. It was found that the Social Studies curriculum is currently inadequate in terms of the integration of refugee students'needs into this course. The research was concluded by comparing the findings with the literature.

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Social Studies, Citizenship Education, and the Search for an American Identity: An Argument against a Unifying Narrative

Cited by 13 publications

References 67 publications

Accurate, age-appropriate and sensitive: reconsidering how to teach the Utah Studies fourth grade social studies core

Accurate, age-appropriate and sensitive: reconsidering how to teach the Utah Studies fourth grade social studies core

Asset-Based Civics for, With, and by Immigrant Students: Three Sites of Enriched Teaching and Learning for Immigrant and Native-Born Students

Sosyal Bi̇lgi̇ler Öğretmenleri̇ Perspekti̇fi̇nden Mülteci̇ Öğrenci̇ler

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