Digital Commons Network^™

Teaching The New Deal: 1932-1941 – Review And Analysis, Susan M. Foster, Brian Walker Johnson

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Teaching the New Deal: 1932-1941 is a text of crucial and timely importance for students and teachers of middle and high school social studies. Through the lenses of four major themes, authors demonstrate inquiry-based pedagogy to intentionally provoke students to consider non-binary conclusions that closely examine the purported heroes, villains, and martyrs of traditional historical narratives. Rather than presenting a factual or ideological approach to teaching disciplinary standards, this text depicts the New Deal Era as a period in history that can be used to critically and creatively discuss the politics of personal identity and to explore the legacies of …

The Counterculture Generation: Idolized, Appropriated, And Misunderstood, Rina R. Bousalis

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Students today possess the impression that all members of the 1960s-70s counterculture generation, or hippies, were long-haired radicals who engaged in deviant behavior. This is attributable to the way media has portrayed youth from this era. Contemporary youth have appropriated the counterculture style without understanding the movement. Businesses transformed the hippies into symbolic commodities, thus reducing their historical significance. This paper describes the implications of this shift and how educators should go beyond the emblematic symbols to teach the counterculture movement in a meaningful way.

Planning For Student Initiative: Creating A Digital Textbook, Ronald Vaughan Morris

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Undergraduate students enrolled in a university class created an elementary social studies book delivered to computers, personal communication devices, and tablets. Students worked in an interdisciplinary team to create the interactive platform. The students worked with both university and community partners to create the text. The study presented described both the content and the process of student generation of material followed by community member review, and the revision cycle used by the students to create features and components of the text materials. A variety of false starts and marketing challenges reflect the obstacles undergraduate students face when creating marketable products …

Hello From The Other Side: Social Studies Faculty Teaching Biography Within State History Courses, Aubrey B. Southall Phd, Lauren Y. Bradshaw Phd

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This paper explores the opinions and interests of pre-service social studies students at two universities enrolled in a state history course taught by a socials studies faculty member. Findings include similar motivation for learning state history and opinions on interactive history lessons, while showcasing different interests in historic figures.

Classroom Culture In The Social Studies Classroom: The Abilities Of Preservice Teachers, Sarah J. Kaka

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this study was to explore how secondary students interpret the classroom culture that preservice social studies teachers create during their student teaching semester. This question was answered by examining results of a survey of secondary social studies students that allowed them to evaluate the classroom culture their social studies preservice teacher created. A Student Perception Survey was used for the study, which loaded four main indicators of classroom culture. Through descriptive statistical analysis of the survey results, this study found that secondary social studies students believed their preservice teachers were most adept at creating a student-centered classroom, …

Social Studies And English Unite: Teachers Collaborate To Promote Literacy, Kayla Davenport Logan

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Collaboration among teachers of social studies and English can yield positive effects for students and professionals alike. Back-to-basics reading strategies such as oral reading and think-alouds are beneficial to the development of critical thinking and writing confidence in both subjects.

Elementary Students’ Attitudes Toward Social Studies, Math, And Science: An Analysis With The Emphasis On Social Studies, Sahin Dundar, Anatoli Rapoport

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of the study was to compare upper elementary students' attitudes towards social studies, science, math, and to find out whether there si a significant difference between 4th and 5th grade students' attitudes towards social studies. The participants of the study were 4th and 5th grades students (n=348) from three elementary schools in a Midwestern state. Results showed that students held less positive attitudes towards social studies than science and mathematics, and fourth graders hold more positive attitues toward social studies than fifth graders.

Uncovering Marginalized Topics Using Webquests: From Atlanta To The Zoot Suit Riots, Gregory Samuels, Michael Berson

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

A critical part of social studies instruction is involving students in making sense of social issues in the past and present to help inform their decisions in the future. Through engaged inquiry students can tackle relevant topics associated with race, class, culture, gender, language, and nationality and explore how these challenging issues mitigate people’s experiences. Moreover, these issues reflect similar tensions that students encounter in their everyday lives. Although these social issues have historical and contemporary relevance, they often are marginalized in state standards and textbooks.

Keeping Social Studies Alive In The Elementary Classroom: Countering The Effects Of Nclb In Southwestern Illinois Schools, Bethany Hill-Anderson, Andria Harrison, Andrea Tardino

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This research project focuses on collaborative partnerships between university faculty, graduate students, and local cooperating teachers. Pre-service teachers surveyed cooperating teachers (N=30) regarding their opinions and practices in social studies education. The data led to positive changes in a university methods course and increased pedagogical skills for teacher candidates.

This venture is a model of effective collaboration between university faculty, graduate students, pre-service teachers, and cooperating teachers who have worked together to gain a deeper understanding of the purpose and challenges faced by social studies educators. The overall goal of the project is to promote social studies education for all …

Researching The Historical Representations Of Ancient Egypt In Trade Books, Lieren Schuette

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

State and national education initiatives require that historical information be introduced in the classroom through the utilization of multiple diverse texts. The role of non-fiction in the English/language arts classroom, as well as informational texts in the history/social studies classroom, increased considerably. The use of trade books allows teachers to connect the two curricula, while also meeting the standards. Primary sources can assist in filling the informational gap left by trade books and textbooks, which allow students to gain a more balanced view of historical events. Teachers, however, are not given direction as to which specific curricular materials are most …

The Historical Representation Of Native Americans Within Primary- And Intermediate-Level Trade Books, John Holden Bickford, Lori A. Knoechel

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

State and national education initiatives require significant changes for public schools beginning at the earliest grade levels and within all content areas. Two relevant changes are the increase of non-fiction in English/language arts and the mandate for diverse texts within history/social studies. History-based trade books are a logical resource for both curricula. Teachers must rely on their discretion when selecting trade books because the initiatives do not provide curricular support. Research indicates trade books’ cultural representation and historical representation are inconsistent, yet there is a need for further research as just over a dozen empirical studies have been completed. This …

Historical Representation Of Immigration In Intermediate Elementary And Middle Grade Trade Books, John Holden Bickford, Stephanie J. Meier

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Education initiatives require social studies, history, and civics teachers integrate multiple texts from diverse perspectives and English, reading, and language arts educators spend half their allotted time on non-fiction. The changes are not accompanied with ready-made curricula, which will likely increase the place of non-fiction trade books in various curricula. Historical misrepresentations appear in trade books, yet most topics have not been empirically examined. This inquiry explores trade books’ historical representation of immigration and immigrants’ experiences. The data pool was organized by books intended for students in Intermediate Elementary (3-5) and Middle Grades (6-8), which enabled consideration of spiraling and …

Untold Stories: Using Common Core State Standards To Give Voice To Japanese Americans, Gregory Samuels

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article explores the idea of facilitating the use of Common Core State Standards, more specifically, the Comprehensive Instructional Sequence Model (CIS), in the social studies classroom for the purposes of providing students exposure to marginalized topics or those topics that are frequently overlooked in the dominant classroom discourse. Included in the article is a brief exploration of how the author reflects upon teaching marginalized topics in the social studies and suggestions for implementing the CIS Model, as well as a user-friendly handout to facilitate this model. The provided lesson includes a snapshot of the experiences and daily events of …

Rethinking The Social In Social Studies, Jeffrey Manuel

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article reviews new approaches in history, social sciences, and science studies that suggest a rethinking of the social. The article begins by situating the social within a long history of social thinking throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It then examines how these new critical approaches to the social offer useful insights into current intellectual problems in the social studies curriculum.

The Transnational Turn And Trickle Down Disturbances, Tim Lacy

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This is an extended review/review essay of *America on the World Stage*. It begins by briefly analyzing the historiography and theoretical background of the "Transnational Turn." The piece then moves to the book, providing the nuts and bolts, positives, and negatives. I conclude with some larger philosophical issues and suggestions for improvement.

How Can We Teach “Western Civilization” If It Doesn’T Exist? Rethinking The European History Survey Model, Jennifer Miller

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Teaching "Western Civilization" survey courses presents a dilemma to teachers and scholars who find themselves teaching with models, categories, and narratives that they would not only not use in their research, but also actively counter with their research. This article proposes that bringing our research into the classroom means fundamentally rethinking how we teach survey courses, from their conceptualization to the sources used.

Examining Original Political Cartoon Methodology: Concept Maps And Substitution Lists, John H. Bickford Iii

John Bickford

Previous research on classroom uses for political cartoons identified two negative trends: creative stagnation (as teachers utilized them solely for interpretation) and age limitation (as researchers suggested they fit best with gifted and older students). Recent scholarship has addressed both trends by enabling young adolescent students to creatively express newly generated understandings through construction of original political cartoons. During such authentic assessment activities, students demonstrated high levels of criticality by using effective and efficient technologies to create original political cartoons, which then elicited constructive whole class interpretative discussions. This prior research did not detail specific methodological steps that positively influenced …

Examining Original Political Cartoon Methodology: Concept Maps And Substitution Lists, John H. Bickford Iii

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Previous research on classroom uses for political cartoons identified two negative trends: creative stagnation (as teachers utilized them solely for interpretation) and age limitation (as researchers suggested they fit best with gifted and older students). Recent scholarship has addressed both trends by enabling young adolescent students to creatively express newly generated understandings through construction of original political cartoons. During such authentic assessment activities, students demonstrated high levels of criticality by using effective and efficient technologies to create original political cartoons, which then elicited constructive whole class interpretative discussions. This prior research did not detail specific methodological steps that positively influenced …