Until the beginning of the 21st century, the Tulsa Race Massacre was omitted mainly from the social studies curriculum and state-mandated standards in the United States. However, the featured lesson provides a valuable springboard to explore the historical perspectives and injustices against the Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 31, 1921.…

This article is a pedagogical case study reflecting on the "Teaching the Levees" curriculum (Crocco, 2007), written in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and in tandem with the Spike Lee film, "When the Levees Broke" (2006). Over 30,000 copies of the curriculum, underwritten by the Rockefeller Foundation, were distributed…

Because social studies educators are expected to incorporate literacy into their instruction, it is important to consider how prospective teachers interact with literacy frameworks as they engage with social studies content. This qualitative case study examines two pre-service social studies teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation course at a…

Teaching about the comfort women of World War II offers a compelling case study for the social studies classroom and human rights education. The topic will educate students to become knowledgeable about the larger world and its dark histories that have been omitted or scarcely mentioned in U.S. history textbooks. This article provides high school…

This mixed-methods study explored the factors secondary history teachers use to determine historical content for their classrooms and the degree of perceived control in decision-making. Through a survey (N = 260) and follow-up interviews (n = 23), we found that secondary history teachers in the United States ranked historical significance most…

Differences of opinion are inherent in controversial issues, because controversy arises when reasonable people disagree about the best way to reach a solution to a problem. However, social studies teachers tend to shy away from disagreements because they want to avoid upsetting students or parents by bringing up controversial topics in the…

This paper attends to the emotional and affective relations that manifest through political discussions in secondary classrooms. In particular, the focus is on the dynamics of classrooms during discussions of political issues. Specific attention is given to interpretations of movements and manifestations of emotions as well as the ways that…

The purpose of this qualitative, single case study is to investigate how teacher-created curricula addresses key Native American events in early U.S. history and to determine if such curricula provided students with accurate representations of Native American content. To do this, we used discourse analysis to consider the meanings of words and…

This study utilized the term "teacher as stranger" from Maxine Greene's (1973) "Teacher as Stranger" to explore how teachers teach contemporary controversial public issues in Taiwan (e.g., national identity, sovereignty, and ethnic issues). Using a case study design, this study documents how six social studies teachers make…

A study of the Holocaust is a challenging task. Schools often dedicate little time to the study of the subject, and teachers are often largely unprepared in regard to their content mastery of the subject, as well as the appropriate pedagogical tools to help guide students through the study of intellectually and emotionally difficult material.…

This paper examines the ways that political contexts affect the perceptions and practices of social studies preservice teachers (SSPSTs) being prepared in a conservative "Red State" compared to those being prepared in a liberal "Blue State." The researchers analyzed how controversial the SSPSTs in each context considered the…

Citizenship education is one of the main aims of the mandated subject of social studies in secondary schools in the Netherlands. Moreover, the learning outcomes of social studies refer to constitutional rights. Internationally, citizenship education and human rights education are considered to be mutually reinforcing. One may, thus, expect that…

Partisan politics challenge educators to determine how best to navigate discussions of controversial subjects within their classrooms. This can be particularly true for new educators in the early stages of developing their confidence and classroom management skills. This qualitative case study uses situated learning and the communities of practice…

This article focuses on how civic agency is taught or not taught by a social studies teacher to the children of soldiers in a largely conservative community and, as a result, how it was learned or not learned. Taken from a larger study investigating individual teacher curricular and pedagogic choice around teaching war near a military base, this…

In this interpretive case study the researchers examined the beliefs of 13 self-identifying race-conscious secondary social studies teachers from diverse racial or ethnic, gender, and school-context backgrounds. The researchers found that the teachers' beliefs and views of practice were generally aligned with the main assertions of critical race…