H ow can we integrate art and social studies to advance art teacher education for social justice? This question has guided our collaborative journey as teacher educators at the same institution. At a public university in the southern United States, the first author is an art teacher educator, and the second author is a social studies teacher…

In this article, the authors unveil the Trade Book Inquiry Design Model (IDM) blueprint. Anchored in a compelling question inspired by a trade book, the new blueprint is broken into two instructional blocks: "Reading and Comprehension" and "Living Social Studies." The inquiry template is designed to be instructionally efficient…

The national imaginary of Norway as a global champion of democracy and social welfare has served well to market its image as exceptional both nationally and internationally. Norwegian national exceptionalism is also deeply embedded within the educational system, and manifests in the production of knowledge and social identities. Despite the…

While the primary focus of the Common Core Learning Standards is in improving literacy and math, elements of Social Studies topics and skills are emphasized. Primary source analysis and understanding multiple perspectives are just two examples. This article is grounded in a qualitative analysis of integrated instruction in two elementary…

This paper considers the implications of the neoclassical dominant narrative in economics education and conceptualizes specific responses that teachers and teacher educators can take to promote a humanizing economics pedagogy. I briefly describe alternative economic paradigms and contrast them with neoclassical fundamentals. Then, I include…

This paper uses critical discourse analysis to examine the alignment between the stated goals and the discursive implications in a scripted curriculum published by Teaching Tolerance, a progressive education organization in the US. Social justice education and critical race theories ground the analysis of "Teaching 'The New Jim Crow': A…

Teaching controversial issues can be challenging for any teacher, but especially so when the teacher is a cultural outsider. In this article, we provide a snapshot of one social studies educator's experiences teaching about two hotly contested elections--the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the 2017 Korean special election--to middle school…

Teachers often respond to the perils of teaching about religion by simply avoiding the subject. An investigation of secondary lesson plans on three prominent Martin Luther King, Jr. websites reveals little attention to the ideology of the civil rights movement, especially those touching on religious ideas. Ignoring King's religious views risks…

This paper presents a critical framework applied to findings from a critical discourse analysis of curriculum and lesson plans in Alberta to examine the assumption that Canada is an ideal place for global citizenship education. The analysis draws on a framework that presents a critique of modernity to recognize a conflation within calls for new…

This article explores recently published P-12 social studies lesson plans that include women to examine how attending to women is "getting done" in the field and how the lessons represent women and women's experiences. Using discourse analysis methodologies, the author demonstrates that women have been included as topics in ways that do…

The classroom with its teaching-learning dynamics creates a kind of "embryonic society" in which the micro-policies of collective social knowledge construction and meaning can be re-constructed; therefore, it can be considered as a kind of "mirror" of political culture. Thus, comparative lesson research, which requires in-depth…

Equality for all was the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and he knowingly laid the foundation for and inspired the first African-American President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, who also had the dream of "Change" for America. These men exhibited how working together can make dreams become reality. For the…

This article discusses the opportunity that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) present for enhancing formative assessment (FA) in history and social studies classrooms. There is evidence that FA can enhance learning for students if implemented well. Unfortunately, teachers continue to be challenged in implementing FA in their classrooms. We…

Literature on teacher education and encounters with race highlight some of the difficulties that teacher candidates face when they confront their own racialized subjectivities. However, many of these projects focus exclusively on Whiteness studies, explicating how White teacher candidates come to witness their own racialized Whiteness in relation…

Students in this post-industrial technological age require opportunities for the acquisition of new skills, especially in the marketplace of innovation. A pedagogical strategy that is becoming more and more popular within social studies classrooms is the use of computer and video games as enhancements to everyday lesson plans. Computer/video games…