This article explores engaging student learning concerning the Black Experience during the Civil Rights Era through the analysis of Norman Rockwell paintings. Focusing on pedagogy and content, the article highlights an instructional framework to encourage an inclusive view of American History...

Purpose Dorothea Lange was one of the first US documentary photographers, and she was empowered by the belief that seeing the effects of injustice, in photographs, could elicit social and political reform. She famously documented the plight of Dust Bowl migrants during the US. Great Depression...

This action research study reports on an important unit of study having evidence of success. The paper discusses how students in a social studies classroom setting may be encouraged to develop and display empathy for individuals who are impacted by hurricane disasters. It uses aspects of the...

When educators, families, and children come together in the classroom to share their diverse cultures, potential exists for learning concepts about democracy, citizenship, and social justice through an immersion experience of interacting together. By involving families and encouraging...

Purpose The purpose of this notable trade book lesson plan is to utilize the novel, Ghost Boys , in an upper elementary/middle school education application. This lesson plan utilizes visual curriculum materials to engage students in a powerful exploration of “bearing witness.” Through the...

Pre-service teachers may leave their graduate programs with strong social justice leanings, yet most begin teaching struggling to integrate their visions into a context constrained by accountability demands. Pressures and constraints, such as high-stakes testing and mandated curriculum, may...

This article analyzes a classroom project that integrated desktop documentary making with an educational foundations course in order to foster empathetic development in pre-service teachers toward unfamiliar cultural groups. The project required each tertiary student in the course to create a...

In this qualitative case study, we examine pre-service teachers’ understandings’ of history as narrative. This analysis specifically explores the kinds of new historical narratives pre-service teachers create as a result of purposeful secondary social studies methods instruction that...

Purpose Existing research suggests that preservice elementary teachers tend to believe “good” citizens are people who follow laws and help others rather than people who embrace a more active model of citizenship that includes working to improve society. The purpose of this paper is to...

Purpose Social justice themes permeate the social studies, history, civics, and current events curricula. The purpose of this paper is to examine how non-fiction trade books represented lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals and issues....