Social Studies Preservice Teachers' Citizenship Knowledge and Perceptions of the U.S. Naturalization Test

Abstract

Teacher educators from six states invited their social studies methodology students to complete an abbreviated version of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Naturalization Test. The preservice teachers were also asked to share their conceptions of citizenship and evaluate the naturalization test. The findings from this study indicated that although this sample of preservice teachers had limited conceptions of citizenship, most were able to get a satisfactory score on the test. The authors discuss the implications of these results and suggest ways to broaden citizenship education in teacher preparation programs.

What Preservice Social Studies Teachers (Don't) Know About Politics and Current Events—And Why It Matters

“…The middle-grades preservice teachers scored worse than their secondary counterparts on every question, oftentimes by a wide margin, which is consistent with other studies of preservice social studies teachers' content knowledge (e.g., Doppen et al, 2011) and research detailing greater emphasis on pedagogy than content in middle-grades teacher education programs (e.g., Conklin, 2012).…”

“…4 One might argue that if preservice teachers' preferred concentration was not social studies, then one might not expect them to enter their methods classes with adequate content knowledge. This argument is often made in reference to elementary preservice teachers, who are often considered generalists and have been shown to not possess deep content knowledge in any one discipline (e.g., Doppen et al, 2011;Sanchez, 2010). I concede that if the middle-grades preservice teachers prefer their non-social studies concentration, they may be less informed about social studies, but I do not consider the middle-grades preservice teachers in this program to be generalists.…”

“…Of course, discovering that preservice teachers do not possess adequate knowledge of content is hardly a new revelation. Within the social studies literature alone, recent studies show preservice teachers demonstrating poor knowledge of content (e.g., Doppen et al, 2011;Sanchez, 2010). It has been my experience that teacher educators often dismiss deficiencies in content knowledge with the understanding that teachers will ultimately learn content, at least that which is required of their students, in order to prepare students for success on end-of-course assessments.…”

“…Despite this perceived importance, few studies exist that explore preservice or practicing teachers' knowledge of politics or current events, and most of the research on preservice social studies teachers' PCK involves the process of historical thinking (e.g., Monte-Sano, 2011). A recent study by Doppen et al (2011), however, explored preservice elementary, middle, and secondary social studies teachers' knowledge of items included on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Test.…”

Awakening a dialogue: A critical race theory analysis of U. S. nature of science research from 1967 to 2013

“…For example, Zeichner and Conklin () note that not only do teacher education programs contribute in important ways to student outcomes, these programs also matter in the larger scheme of understanding teaching. Sampling methods courses for the sake of improving methods teaching and teacher candidate outcomes is also common across all disciplines of teacher education including social studies (Doppen et al, ; Owens, ), mathematics (Burroughs & Luebeck, ; Metz, ; Ward, ), and english (Petrone & Lewis, ; Zoss, Holbrook, McGrail, & Albers, ).…”