The Journal of Social Studies Research

Curriculum consonance between social studies teacher education programs and field placements poses a perennial problem to social studies teacher educators and their students. This study explores the types of cooperating teacher placements experienced by preservice social studies teachers during their prestudent teaching field experiences (practicum) at two universities, one of which makes random placements and the other of which makes purposeful placements. Data collected from post-field experience surveys and preservice student interviews with cooperating teachers over a three-year period form the foundation for discerning the role of field placement processes in maintaining consonance between social studies teacher education programs and preservice field experiences. The findings suggest that roughly half of cooperating teachers in random placements subscribe to a citizenship transmission approach to social studies education, while approximately half of the purposive placement teachers subscribe to reflective inquiry. These findings indicate clearly the relation of field placement processes to achieving successful program goals.

High stakes accountability has intensified the marginalization of social studies in public schools. A popular response to the dilemma between raising achievement in English Language Arts and preserving social studies is to integrate the two subjects. This qualitative case study analyzes instruction in a fifth grade urban classroom where the teacher used U.S. history lessons to teach literacy skills and strategies. I conducted weekly classroom observations over a semester: interviewed the teacher, students, and administrators; and collected pertinent documents. Although two-and-a-haļf hours were devoted to social studies each week, I found that lessons revolved around literacy training based on reading passages from the textbook. These lessons became increasingly routine, distancing students from history rather than supporting their understanding of it. The teacher’s practice was influenced by standardized testing and professional development. This case study serves as a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences that can result when literacy and social studies are combined with the goal of raising test scores.

This paper proposes that as a way to broaden the theoretical and historical context of social studies foundational literature and curriculum history, attention must be given to issues of race and racism related the experiences of African Americans. First, race and racism should he used as an analytical tool to examine longstanding foundations topics. Second, historically marginalized social studies scholars need to he recognized and theoretically situated within the existing literature of social studies foundations. Last, there must be comparative work that examines African American and White progressives’ similar and divergent conceptions of K-12 social studies curriculum. As a way to address these limitations in the social studies foundations literature, this paper provides a comparative examination of the different ways in which Harold O. Rugg and Carter G. Woodson rendered race and racism in the textbooks they authored during the early twentieth century. This article concludes with a discussion about the implications of this study to social studies foundations scholarship.

This case study explores potential educational tensions in historical empathy for learning about emotionally difficult topics through lessons that use dramatic feature films (movies). It investigates one case of historical empathy in the classroom by analyzing what a high-school teacher and her students do and talk about in class. The observed lesson was part of the teacher’s unit on World War II and the Holocaust in a World History course using the 2002 Academy Awardwinning film The Pianist. The conclusion interprets this case as an example of how the visual and emotional power of movies may lead some students to “overempathize “ and feel that they can “really” know what a historical perspective must have been like. The “caring” aspect of historical empathy has the potential to overrun historical context and override other educational goals like learning and applying content knowledge.