Social studies education and research in the United States must fully embrace social justice and equity and abandon the dangerous myths of white, male-dominated manifest destiny and American exceptionalism.
This is the powerful thesis of a book of essays conceived and edited by three professors in the 糖心vlog视频鈥檚 School of Educational Studies. The book has now been honored by a national education association.
Published in June 2022 by Myers Education Press, was edited by Dr. Wayne Au, Dr. Natasha Hakimali Merchant and Dr. Sarah B. Shear. The three are faculty experts in multicultural and social studies education, and each has also spent time teaching social studies in K-12 schools.
Accurate and inclusive
The book offers critiques of longstanding problems in social studies education, as well as useful interventions for educators working to make social studies pedagogy more accurate and inclusive, said Shear, an associate professor.
鈥淪ocial studies curriculum has largely and problematically amplified white settler supremacist ideology. In this book, we demonstrate why this continues to be harmful to students and communities,鈥 Shear said. 鈥淲e also demonstrate how social studies can change.鈥
The three editors state their case plainly in a co-written introductory chapter titled 鈥淲e Won鈥檛 Wait Any Longer: An Introduction and Invitation to Insurgency in Social Studies.鈥
鈥淭he social studies problem is a violent act of white settler supremacy that is repeated generation after generation in classrooms across the United States from kindergarten through graduate school and in media spaces too many to list,鈥 they write.
鈥淎lthough there have been movements of resistance and to varying degrees successes, to address these crimes, social studies education is still largely a curriculum designed to erase or otherwise marginalize voices, bodies and experiences not accepted by or created for the benefit of white supremacist society.鈥
Activism themes
The book鈥檚 10 chapters each take up an aspect of the overarching theme, starting with an essay by the , of which Shear is a member, titled 鈥淚nsurgence Must Be Red: Connecting Indigenous Studies and Social Studies Education for Anticolonial Praxis.鈥 Praxis is defined as practice, apart from theory.
The essay titled 鈥淯nsatisfied: The Conceptual Terrain of De-Essentializing Islam in Social Studies鈥 aims to 鈥渦nearth some of the complexities in various approaches to teaching about Islam in social studies,鈥 said Merchant, an assistant professor.
Merchant said the piece then asks: 鈥淚f we shift our understanding of these base-categories themselves 鈥 if we try to understand Islam outside of colonial conceptions and logics, how then can we imagine a pedagogical approach to it in the social studies?鈥
Other chapters explore topics such as learning from the Black Lives Matter movement, amplifying Latinx voices, correcting distorted views of Asian Americans, clarifying the role of Palestine and Palestinians, social studies education as a state tool in the War on Terror and more.
The book鈥檚 final chapter, 鈥淚nsurgent Social Studies and Dangerous Citizenship,鈥 returns to the theme of educator as reform activist.
Outstanding book award
The book has been met with praise and positive reviews.
鈥淭he call for a more radical social studies has been clear since even before the field鈥檚 existence,鈥 wrote LaGarrett King of the University of Buffalo. 鈥溾業nsurgent Social Studies鈥 is building from the radical tradition of scholars and teachers who have used the classroom to challenge how humanity is defined. 鈥 This book forces us to rethink and reconsider what is social studies education.鈥
Now, the Society of Professors of Education has honored 鈥淚nsurgent Social Studies鈥 with a 2023 . This national organization, formerly called the Society of College Teachers of Education, was formed in 1902 to provide a forum for addressing issues facing the discipline and vocation of education.
In choosing the awards, reviewers consider how texts show 鈥渢he relationship between education and the social complexities in which schools are contextualized鈥 as well as how they foster inquiry into the history and future of teaching and learning. The book awards were announced on April 15, during the society鈥檚 annual convention.
Education reform
Au, interim dean of the School of Educational Studies, said the idea behind the book came from a concept he termed a 鈥減edagogy of insurgency鈥 that views teachers as active players in reforming and reframing education.
The project then came into clearer focus during conversations with Shear about problems with social studies research, education and teacher training, he said.
A 鈥減edagogy of insurgency,鈥 the editors write, 鈥渟eeks to understand and at least partially explain the ways that teachers have the power, through pedagogy, curriculum and community activism, to actively resist injustice while also working toward a more radically just world.鈥
Gathering material for the volume was relatively easy because the contributors are all committed to moving the field of social studies education forward, Au said. The biggest obstacle, if any, was the pandemic. 鈥淚t just made everybody鈥檚 work slower. The project took two and a half years to fully come together.鈥
Critical perspectives
Who is the book鈥檚 audience? Au said it is primarily 鈥渇uture social studies teachers who might be sitting in a graduate classroom or even undergraduate classroom 鈥 but I think current social studies teachers, in the classroom now, could definitely benefit from this as well.鈥
Merchant said the editors agreed on 鈥渨anting to prioritize those perspectives which are under the threat of erasure of being diluted by dominant forces of white supremacy culture within social studies.
鈥淲e wanted to highlight the work of contemporary scholars who, despite considerable resistance, have unabashedly called attention to discomforting truths that force change in thought and practice,鈥 Merchant said.
As Au summed up, 鈥淚t feels like this project has been done in a way that will really push the boundaries of how we understand social studies, and I think that鈥檚 really important.
鈥淭his is a moment to fight for the actual truth in the complexity of United States history. And we want to encourage teachers 鈥 current and future 鈥 to take up that fight.鈥
