In a time of hyperpolarization and hyper partisanship, preparing students to deliberate about their differences becomes even more important. In this interview, Diana Hess, dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of The Political Classroom, describes the challenge of ensuring that students have access to…

This qualitative study sought to explore reasons why social studies teachers chose to teach controversial issues and counternarratives in their classroom in an era where doing so is dangerous for teachers and their job security, and how they go about doing so in their classrooms. The theoretical framework of this study encompassed the notion that…

In this article, I explore this question: How can teachers, especially new teachers, create school spaces that present humanizing images and stories of people who were enslaved, particularly people of African descent in the United States? To explore this question, drawing from an ethnographic study of teachers at an elementary school in the U.S.…

In this article, the author argues that questions about race should be raised in elementary social studies teacher education in order to better prepare teachers to enter their classrooms. In this study she explores how elementary pre-service teachers situate race within the social studies curriculum and how prepared they feel about discussing race…

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…

The "college readiness" movement of the past decade coupled with the widespread adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has generated pressure on content area teachers to develop disciplinary thinking skills while also providing more opportunities for student writing. The purpose of this three-article dissertation is to understand…

This study explores the perceptions of South Korean moral and social studies education teachers, teacher educators, and students on the promises and challenges of introducing and discussing controversial issues within their classrooms. The findings suggest that college entrance exams, textbooks, didacticism, dualism, administrators, textbooks,…

This study examines why a group of students representing two high schools became involved in an activist organization, the benefits they gained as a result, the impact they had on their school and community, and their recommendations for how school personnel can foster civic engagement in young people. The student-led group campaigned for a school…

This article aims to explore how social studies teachers understand their role in the delivery of course content. Drawing on data from an interpretive study completed as part of a Master of Education degree, the article investigates how social studies teachers understand their personal ideology as it relates to their teaching, navigate the…

The National Council of Social Studies stated that students are not prepared for living in an increasingly multicultural society, even though federal legislation expects the integration of multicultural concepts and skills into state social studies standards. What remains unclear in this expectation is how K-12 social studies teachers have…

As much as the history and study of Africa have been incorporated into social studies curricula, Africa is still a region that is prone to misperceptions and misconceptions. Social studies teachers could provide students with an alternative image, but what if they only perpetuate misperceptions of Africa? This case study examines preservice…

This study addresses how my freshman world history students come to understand controversial issues as provocative within the secondary social studies classroom, and in what ways does their engagement with provocative issues influence their understanding of the content and the world around them. In addition, this research study seeks to discover…

Controversial issues have been established within the larger framework of civic education as an effective pedagogical approach to developing critical thinking in the classroom, preparing students with intellectual habits necessary for participation in scholarship, civic life and democracy. In this study, we found that a pedagogical intervention,…

In Guatemala, three centuries after Spanish conquest and in the wake of more than three decades of internal conflict, the framers of the 1996 Accord for a Firm and Lasting Peace placed educational reform at the center of efforts to make peace with this contentious past. This article, based on a multisite qualitative study, describes how Guatemalan…

Incorporating controversial issues into pre-service teacher education provides teacher candidates with opportunities not only to gain effective civic competence but also to develop skills and experience in their teaching of controversial issues. The purpose of this study was to ascertain social studies teacher candidates' views on the…