A diverse democracy brings together people whose differences include partisan leanings, life experiences, histories, religious beliefs, racial identities, and sexual orientations to address common problems and build a shared future. Social studies educators can help prepare youth to pursue this goal by advancing core commitments to respectful and…

Research on practice-based teacher education [PBTE], such as rehearsals or teaching simulations, assumes that preservice teachers [PSTs] prefer such practical approaches in comparison to more theoretical work. Few studies test this assumption or incorporate PSTs voices and perspectives on PBTE approaches. This study draws on survey data and…

The author successfully implemented the "House" system in a university social studies methods class and reports on the positive results that ensued. Students reported a sense of unity, camaraderie, identity, and closeness that was missing in many of their other classes. The House assignments and competitions are described, as well as…

Purpose: This article describes an effort to ease the tension between boundary spanning roles for interns participating in a yearlong Professional Development School (PDS) program. In order to do this, the structure of a Social Studies Methods course was revised to mimic a professional learning community (PLC) and assignments were not evaluated…

The main goal in this study was to explore the impact of a professional learning community (PLC) on social studies (SS) teachers' professional development (PD) and student academic achievement. With this in mind, the study was carried out using a design-based research approach with an overarching ADDIE design model. The participants of the study…

This paper provides an overview of the problematic state of Philippine democracy that has long been attributed to the nation's history of colonial rule, widespread poverty and inequality, oligarchic structures, and dysfunctional institutions. It focuses on the role of education and Social Studies Education, specifically, in cultivating in Filipino…

This instrumental case study illustrates the necessity of free spaces within antiracist teacher education. The author uses antiracism and free spaces as a theoretical lens to examine the experiences of 11 social studies teacher educators (SSTEs) who teach and research antiracist social studies. The findings portray the SSTEs' need for free space…

The purpose of this two-phased, mixed-method action research study was to investigate the impact of a professional learning community's collective teacher efficacy and their practice of collective inquiry in closing the achievement gap of eighth-grade social studies English language learners. The research questions guiding this research: 1. How…

This article examines the democratic hopes for the community of philosophical inquiry (CPI), a mode of deliberative discussion, when social justice is both the topic and the goal of discussion. It shares insights from a CPI that was used as an intersubjective research method (Golding, 2015) to enable the authors to interrogate their assumptions…

Recognizing the prevalence of low literacy achievements of secondary students with disabilities despite numerous mainstream reading interventions' attempts to alleviate the issue, this dissertation considers an alternative path to literacy. To begin, this study theorizes knowledge, literacy, and learning as mutually constituted person-world…

Ongoing educational reforms and the accountability movement in public education can pose significant challenges for teachers as they strive to meet a critical, social-justice vision for the social studies. Teachers' continued professional growth and learning are viewed as the main factors towards achieving this goal; however, quite often the…

A large body of recent research calls for expanding what it means to teach literacy in the content areas. This includes movement away from conceiving of content literacy instruction as generic literacy strategies superimposed on content-area text. Instead, the focus is on the discursive literate practices of the disciplines, including ways of…

In recent decades, digital technologies have facilitated new opportunities for educators to share and co-construct teaching and learning ideas and resources. One largely unresearched example of this phenomena is HyperDocs, which are interactive, digital teaching and learning materials created, disseminated, and remixed by educators. Despite…

Teachers already know that students need the skills necessary to think critically, work with others and express ideas, but often wonder how they can ensure a painless, successful professional development experience that puts the learner at the center and models best practices? They also ask how the outcomes of these fruitful professional learning…

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised societal awareness of the role scientific literacy has in understanding and problem-solving complex societal issues. Misinformation during the pandemic relating to health, disease, and vaccines has impacted public health efforts to control the novel coronavirus. One of K-12 science education's main goals is to…