Critical Issues In Social Studies Research For The 21st Century

Annotation Contributors from around the US examine such issues as defining social studies, climates of constraint and restraint on teachers and teaching, committing acts of history, moving the center of global education, and computer technologies. There is no index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The authors of the nine other chapters in this book have struggled with the issues discussed above in several different ways. The chapter authors represent a wide range of views and expertise within the field of social stud-ies. Some have been leading social studies scholars for three or four decades. Other authors represent new voices that have begun to shape the direction social studies will take in the future. The topics examined here include the debate over how to define social studies, social studies and the impact of the standards/accountability movement, the contextual con-straints/ restraints on teaching social studies, education for democracy, rationales for teaching history, multicultural education, global education, social studies and educational technology, and the nature and effectiveness of social studies research.

This volume fills a significant gap in the scholarship on social studies education by providing thoughtful reflections on research methods in the field. It is not a “how to” guide but an exploration of key issues related to the design and implementation of empirical studies. The authors are active researchers who use varied methods in diverse settings—including historical research, international comparative studies, survey research, interviews with students and teachers, classroom observations, self-studies and action research, and emancipatory methodologies. They use their own experiences to examine such topics as the conceptualization of research questions, relationships with participants, researchers’ identities, and elicitation of students’ and teachers’ thinking. This collection should become indispensable for both beginning and experienced scholars in social studies.

Through rapid developments in commerce, transportation and communication, people once separated by space, language and politics are now interwoven into a complex global system (Friedman, 2005). With the rise of new technology, local populations, businesses and states are better equipped to participate and act in a thriving international environment. Rising instability in the Middle East is immediately reported to oil and gas brokers in the U.S. Within seconds cable channels, iPods, social networking sites, and cell phones are relaying how protests in Egypt and Libya give hope to citizens around the world yearning for freedom. As events like 9/11 and the 2008 Financial Crisis have demonstrated, there is no retreating from the interconnectedness of the global system. As societies strive to empower citizens with the skills, understandings and dispositions needed to operate in an interconnected global age, teachers are being encouraged to help students use technologies to develop new knowledge and foster cross cultural understandings. As pressures mount for society to equip today’s youth with both the global and digital understandings necessary to confront the challenges of the 21st century, a more thorough analysis must be undertaken to examine the role of technology on student learning (Peters, 2009). This work will highlight the complex, contested, and contingent ways new technologies are being used by today’s youth in a digital and global age. This text will present audiences with in-demand research that investigates the ways in which student use of technology mediates and complicates their learning about the world, its people, and global issues.

Revised and updated second edition offers an overall framework to guide teaching in setting objectives, devising lessons, and choosing classroom strategies, as well as assistance in constructing tests.

Over the past decade, the world has experienced a major economic collapse, the increasing racial inequity and high-profile police killings of unarmed Black and Brown people, the persistence of global terrorism, a large-scale refugee crisis, and the negative impacts of global warming. In reaction to social instability, there are growing populist movements in the United States and across the world, which present major challenges for democracy. Concurrently, there has been a rise of grassroots political movements focused on increasing equity in relation to race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and religion. The role of social studies teachers in preparing the next generation of democratic citizens has never been more important, and the call for more social studies teacher educators to help teachers address these critical issues only gets louder. This volume examines how teacher educators are (or are not) supporting beginning and experienced social studies teachers in such turbulent times, and it offers suggestions for moving the field forward by better educating teachers to address growing local, national, and global concerns. In their chapters, authors in social studies education present research with implications for practice related to the following topics: race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration, religion, disciplinary literacy, global civics, and social justice. This book is guided by the following overarching questions: What can the research tell us about preparing and developing social studies teachers for an increasingly complex, interconnected, and rapidly changing world? How can we educate social studies teachers to “teach against the grain” (Cochran-Smith, 1991, 2001b), centering their work on social justice, social change, and social responsibility?

Taken together, these authors explore the many and varied challenges faced by teacher educators generally, and social studies teacher educators specifically. Their analyses and recommendations provide a starting point for ongoing deliberations about the nature and challenges of the field. There are no easy answers; but continuing the discussion is crucial.

Educating About Social Issues in the 20th and 21st Centuries: A Critical Annotated Bibliography, is comprised of critical essays accompanied by annotated bibliographies on a host of programs, models, strategies and concerns vis-à-vis teaching and learning about social issues facing society. The primary goal of the book is to provide undergraduate and graduate students in the field of education, professors of education, and teachers with a valuable resource as they engage in research and practice in relation to teaching about social issues. In the introductory essays, authors present an overview of their respective topics (e.g., The Hunt/Metcalf Model, Science/Technology/Science, Genocide Education). In doing so, they address, among other concerns, the following: key theories, goals, objectives, and the research base. Many also provide a set of recommendations for adapting and/or strengthening a particular model, program or the study of a specific social issue. In the annotated bibliographies accompanying the essays, authors include those works that are considered classics and foundational. They also include research- and practice-oriented articles. Due to space constraints, the annotated bibliographies generally offer a mere sampling of what is available on each approach, program, model, or concern. The book is composed of twenty two chapters and addresses an eclectic array of topics, including but not limited to the following: the history of teaching and learning about social issues; George S. Counts and social issues; propaganda analysis; Harold Rugg's textbook program; Hunt and Metcalf's Reflective Thinking and Social Understanding Model; Donald Oliver, James Shaver and Fred Newmann's Public Issues Model; Massialas and Cox' Inquiry Model; the Engle/Ochoa Decisionmaking Model; human rights education; Holocaust education; education for sustainability; economic education; global education; multicultural education; James Beane's middle level education integrated curriculum model; Science Technology Society (STS); addressing social issues in the English classroom; genocide education; interdisciplinary approaches to incorporating social issues into the curriculum; critical pedagogy; academic freedom; and teacher education.