Rethinking Social Studies

Like the schools in which it is taught, social studies is full of alluring contradictions. It harbors possibilities for inquiry and social criticism, liberation and emancipation. Social studies could be a site that enables young people to analyze and understand social issues in a holistic way – finding and tracing relations and interconnections both present and past in an effort to build meaningful understandings of a problem, its context and history; to envision a future where specific social problems are resolved; and take action to bring that vision in to existence. Social studies could be a place where students learn to speak for themselves in order to achieve, or at least strive toward an equal degree of participation and better future. Social studies could be like this, but it is not. Rethinking Social Studies examines why social studies has been and continues to be profoundly conversing in nature, the engine room of illusion factories whose primary aim is reproduction of the existing social order, where the ruling ideas exist to be memorized, regurgitated, internalized and lived by. Rethinking social studies as a site where students can develop personally meaningful understandings of the world and recognize they have agency to act on the world, and make change, rests on the premises that social studies should not show life to students, but bringing them to life and that the aim of social studies is getting students to speak for themselves, to understand people make their own history even if they make it in already existing circumstances. These principles are the foundation for a new social studies, one that is not driven by standardized curriculum or examinations, but by the perceived needs, interests, desires of students, communities of shared interest, and ourselves as educators. Rethinking Social Studies challenges readers to reconsider conventional thought and practices that sustain the status quo in classrooms, schools, and society by critically engaging with questions and issues such as: neutrality in the classroom; how movement conservatism shapes the social studies curriculum; how corporate?driven education affects schools, teachers, and curriculum; ways in which teachers can creatively disrupt everyday life in the social studies classroom; going beyond language and inclusive content in social justice oriented teaching; making critical pedagogy relevant to everyday life and classroom practice; the invisibility of class in the social studies curriculum and how to make it a central organizing concept; class war, class consciousness and social studies in the age of empire; what are your ideals as a social studies education and how do you keep them and still teach?; and what it means to be a critical social studies educator beyond the classroom.

In this volume teacher educators explicitly and implicitly share their visions for the purposes, experiences, and commitments necessary for social studies teacher preparation in the twenty-first century. It is divided into six sections where authors reconsider: 1) purposes, 2) course curricula, 3) collaboration with on-campus partners, 4) field experiences, 5) community connections, and 6) research and the political nature of social studies teacher education. The chapters within each section provide critical insights for social studies researchers, teacher educators, and teacher education programs. Whether readers begin to question what are we teaching social studies teachers for, who should we collaborate with to advance teacher learning, or how should we engage in the politics of teacher education, this volume leads us to consider what ideas, structures, and connections are most worthwhile for social studies teacher education in the twenty-first century to pursue.

The book is unique in that it mixes theory and practical applications in rethinking traditional social studies education. It focuses on essays integrating media, popular culture, and alternative texts for teaching and learning in social studies and history education through a social education lens. Social education integrates social studies, media / popular culture, and cultural studies all within a social justice framework. The text provides 20+ curriculum themes with strategies to connect in teaching and learning, along with resources to extend depth of understanding. In addition, the pedagogical philosophy inherent in the essays is student-centered learning focusing on issues, problem, and project-based instruction. Although the themes are generally social studies and history focused, the links to media and popular culture can be integrated in other disciplines.

Teaching is a lifelong challenge, but the first few years in the classroom are typically a teacher's hardest. This expanded collection of writings and reflections offers practical guidance on how to navigate the school system, form rewarding relationships with colleagues, and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

This book brings together renowned scholars from four continents to celebrate the lifelong and seminal contribution of Professor Sam Moyo to the social sciences. Moyo was a Zimbabwean scholar whose intellectual trajectory was part of the emergence of a critical scholarship based in the realities and traditions of Africa and the Third World.

As part of a growing nationwide movement to bring Ethnic Studies into K-12 classrooms, Rethinking Ethnic Studies brings together many of the leading teachers, activists, and scholars in this movement to offer examples of Ethnic Studies frameworks, classroom practices, and organizing at the school, district, and statewide levels. Built around core themes of indigeneity, colonization, anti-racism, and activism, Rethinking Ethnic Studies offers vital resources for educators committed to the ongoing struggle for racial justice in our schools.

With innovative new chapters on process tracing, regression analysis, and natural experiments, the second edition of Rethinking Social Inquiry further extends the reach of this path-breaking book. The original debate with King, Keohane, and Verba_now updated_remains central to the volume, and the new material illuminates evolving discussions of essential methodological tools. Thus, process tracing is often invoked as fundamental to qualitative analysis, but is rarely applied with precision. Pitfalls of regression analysis are sometimes noted, but often are inadequately examined. And the complex assumptions and trade-offs of natural experiments are poorly understood. The second edition extends the methodological horizon through exploring these critical tools. A distinctive feature of this edition is the online placement of four chapters from the prior edition, all focused on the dialogue with King, Keohane, and Verba. Also posted online are exercises for teaching process tracing and understanding process tracing.

A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is a collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems, and graphics to help breathe life into teaching about the environmental crisis. The book features some of the best articles from Rethinking Schools magazine alongside classroom-friendly readings on climate change, energy, water, food, and pollution—as well as on people who are working to make things better. A People’s Curriculum for the Earth has the breadth and depth ofRethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World, one of the most popular books we’ve published. At a time when it’s becoming increasingly obvious that life on Earth is at risk, here is a resource that helps students see what’s wrong and imagine solutions. Praise for A People's Curriculum for the Earth "To really confront the climate crisis, we need to think differently, build differently, and teach differently. A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is an educator’s toolkit for our times." — Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate "This volume is a marvelous example of justice in ALL facets of our lives—civil, social, educational, economic, and yes, environmental. Bravo to the Rethinking Schools team for pulling this collection together and making us think more holistically about what we mean when we talk about justice." — Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison "Bigelow and Swinehart have created a critical resource for today’s young people about humanity’s responsibility for the Earth. This book can engender the shift in perspective so needed at this point on the clock of the universe." — Gregory Smith, Professor of Education, Lewis & Clark College, co-author with David Sobel of Place- and Community-based Education in Schools

The social realist movement, with its focus on proletarian themes and its strong ties to New Deal programs and leftist politics, has long been considered a depression-era phenomenon that ended with the start of World War II. This study explores how and why African American writers and visual artists sustained an engagement with the themes and aesthetics of social realism into the early cold war-era--far longer than a majority of their white counterparts. Stacy I. Morgan recalls the social realist atmosphere in which certain African American artists and writers were immersed and shows how black social realism served alternately to question the existing order, instill race pride, and build interracial, working-class coalitions. Morgan discusses, among others, such figures as Charles White, John Wilson, Frank Marshall Davis, Willard Motley, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Elizabeth Catlett, and Hale Woodruff.

Identifies and explores unresolved controversies and ambiguities in present day sociological theorizing.