The disappointing results of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Civics and U.S. History have further fueled the call for consistent, high-quality social studies instruction. The response by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) highlighted the imperative for early grades, claiming "the lack of a solid…

In this article, the authors discuss a month-long research study where sixth grade students researched three women for the half-century after the U.S. Civil War War that worked to change their respective communities to address public issues: Jane Addams, Clara Lemlich, and Ida B. Wells. The sixth graders read a picture book for each of the three…

There are notable historical figures commonly taught in social studies curriculums across the country, often without much controversy. Because they are seen as "elemental" to many World and U.S. histories, they mostly remain in standardized curriculum while recent censorship of content concerning race, gender, and sexuality has…

Students, especially young children, recognize differences. This guided inquiry positions elementary students to consider the (dis)abilities they see and do not see. This article couples trade books emphasizing diverse perspectives--general, American, people of color, international contexts, fiction, and disparate (dis)abilities--with evocative…

Second-graders engaged in complex reading, writing, and thinking about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Close readings of secondary and primary sources situated students to discover incongruencies between what is reported within trade-books and what is revealed within historical documents. Scaffolding directed students' scrutiny of…

Black experiences and discourse concerning citizenship are unique. Moreover, Black access to full citizenship is often a matter of life and death. The civic purposes driving this pursuit are often negated in conventional curriculum and pedagogy, especially in early childhood settings. Still, it is essential for educators and policymakers to…

Shifting to an inquiry-based practice can be challenging. How should teachers get started? How many times should teachers plan for inquiry? What do teachers do when students struggle with inquiry? How long does it take for students to buy in to the inquiry process? These kinds of questions, and the concerns that underlie them, can create an…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card, is the most comprehensive measure of student learning, and is widely considered the gold standard for empirically measuring trends in student achievement outcomes in the United States. The NAEP data for 2018, which were released on April 23, 2020, offer…

In this article, I consider the use of Asian American digital archives as sources of critical inquiry for the elementary social studies classroom. First, I provide a brief overview of early South Asian American history, focusing on Punjabi and Bengali migrations. Then, I orient educators to two noteworthy community archives, the South Asian…

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the need to understand teaching and learning not just as cognitive but also as affective experiences that are imbued with emotional complexity. There is also an emergent body of research on how to teach difficult knowledge of war. Joining this scholarship, this article presents research…

During their participation in a classroom-based research project, 9-10-year-old students had opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal ensembles. The Grade 4 students read, discussed and wrote about picturebooks during Language…

This study is a content analysis of K-12 U.S. history curriculum standards from 50 states regarding curricular re/presentation of Asian Americans. The guiding research questions are as follows: (1) What is the frequency of Asian American content covered in K-12 U.S. history standards from 50 states? (2) How do the standards depict Asian Americans…

In this manuscript, the authors discuss a seven-day research project that occurred within the Birmingham metropolitan area where fourth graders researched the role that public issues played in the creation of two suburban school systems in their city. We coded student work samples to look for themes. Emergent themes from student work samples are…

Seventh-grade students engaged in a guided historical inquiry about slavery, freedom, and unfreedom. The teacher carefully intertwined historical content, close reading, critical thinking, and text-based writing -- both extemporaneous and refined-- during Social Studies. Students scrutinized primary sources to build their historical schemas over…

Lately, theme parks have emphasized the learning and edutainment aspects of their business. This has created new opportunities for theme parks and schools to cooperate. Research has shown that learning at science centers, a similar form of learning arena, tends to be out of context and that the learning outcomes are meager. High Chaparral, in…