Artists have long addressed social injustices within popular music. As teachers consider how to deconstruct and teach the events of 2020 (and beyond) with an eye toward the future, we offer a novel pedagogical approach to incorporating music into the social studies classroom: the set-list. The set-list can be understood as containing temporal…

In addition to the continuing need for citizens who can address the challenges of "human" communities, growing concerns have arisen regarding "all" life on the planet. Indeed, one of our most urgent conditions is the decline of the environment upon which all life depends. Yet, despite our concerns, there remain vastly differing…

Students learned to perform first-person presentation to display information researched through an inquiry process. Teachers helped students learn inquiry during instructional time. Teachers, parents, and guardians worked together to support student learning in a high poverty and low educational attainment Appalachian community. The character the…

The role of literacy in social studies education has been greatly elevated over the last decade. The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) models through the indicators of its C3 Framework how to strengthen K-12 students' disciplinary thinking, literacy, and argumentation skills in the four core social studies disciplines: civics,…

In February 2019, two nations with the largest nuclear arsenals announced their withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Russia's interference in U.S. elections and the invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated tensions between the U.S. and Russia. These actions bring renewed attention to nuclear nonproliferation efforts…

In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, some who were unable to cope with the devastation and the failure to prevent them turned to alternative explanations as to how and why these attacks occurred. Coinciding with the growth of the internet, hyper-partisan news sources, and misinformation, a vast number of 9/11 conspiracy theories emerged…

Political history lends itself to traditional patterns of teaching and learning in social studies such as students memorizing facts presented in lectures or textbooks. This article presents a recurring activity structure for teaching U.S. political history--Consensus Circle Presidential Rating (CCPR)--which requires students to read across…

Today's political environment continues to become more polarized as Americans find themselves taking sides on controversial issues. While this is certainly not new to the American democratic experience, the way we as a country are combating it is. With the nation engulfed in a political maelstrom, people are forgetting how to have a civilized…

Freedom of expression is the core political ideal undergirding American democracy and recent attacks on freedom of speech are a direct threat to the liberties and rights guaranteed in the United States Constitution. Freedom of expression is essential for participatory democracy, scientific progress, individualism, and civic education in K-12…

Based on critical content analyses of picturebooks about children who have sought refuge, we outline a scaffolded method for social studies teachers and teacher educators to historicize forced displacement in children's literature. The method integrates critical literacy, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and inquiry-based social studies…

Human dignity is a complex, though essential, concept for students to master. Inserting human dignity into existing curricula provides students with more opportunities to consider the problems of vulnerable classmates and the status of human dignity and rights in the United States and around the world. Using parts of the US modern Civil Rights…

While all citizens are increasingly concerned with climate change and its associated effects, youth show particular interest and activism around the topic. Legislators and activists have recently championed a Green New Deal as offering goals for how the issue might be addressed in the United States and other countries. In this article, we offer an…

This article explores the racial prerequisite cases, which were dubious court decisions that attempted to rationalize pseudo-"scientific evidence" and "common knowledge" as reasons for who could and could not be considered for, and who was ultimately denied, U.S. citizenship. These cases are historical antecedents of the…

In this article, I discuss one approach of implementing thematic teaching in the high school social studies classroom exploring the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. First, a short summary for the type of high school social studies classroom envisioned in the C3 Framework by NCSS is discussed. Then, I define thematic teaching and the…

Historical narratives of Black women often focus solely on racial discrimination without acknowledging the structural and systemic gender-based discrimination they faced. Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality draws upon decades of Black feminist scholarship delineating how Black women experience systemic oppression on account of both their race…