Contemporary literature reveals that many educators, especially those in elementary schools and in conflict-effected societies, are reluctant to engage in the teaching of current public issues, even more so social controversies. However, this qualitative study examined the successful experience and the perspectives of educators from two elementary…

Teachers have faced unrelenting stress in recent years, especially since 2020. In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, the preeminence of racial injustice has resurfaced. In this context, teachers are processing acute societal-level stressors while simultaneously supporting their students in processing these events. Although emerging scholarship has…

During the last decade, the Syrian crisis has, in various ways, imposed many fundamental changes upon Syrian society. It has pervaded cultural issues at large with a major effect on education. Ideologies, schooling, mass media, human relationships, and mutual understanding, all have been the target of fierce upheaval. This article examines the…

The aim of the research is to investigate preservice teachers' views about the inclusion of current events into teaching plans in the social studies teaching course included in an undergraduate elementary education program. The participants of the study were 53 preservice teachers in the social studies teaching course in the third year of the…

The accessibility of new media combined with emerging patterns of migration are challenging current definitions of community as we see a shift from close-knit face-to-face interactions to more diverse 'glocalized' networks that defines community as a social rather than a spatial dimension. These changes mean that social connections, and…

Overwhelmingly, elementary social studies standards focus on Native Americans in past tense. If elementary teachers follow state curriculum for social studies, students are often not provided the opportunity to learn about Native people in the present. The purposes of this study were to (a) determine the number of current state elementary (K-5)…

This article shares the "Paper Circuit Story Timeline" and the "Story Quilting" project from the Elementary STEM Teaching Integrating Technology and Computing Holistically (E-STITCH) curriculum, a free curriculum and project guide set for grades 3-6. The E-STITCH curriculum is designed as a method for teaching science and…

The present study aimed to determine the views of classroom teachers on the inclusion or exclusion of current issues in classroom instruction, to investigate these views based on the definition of current issues, the methods and techniques employed in the instruction of current issues, the analysis of the instruction, and the positive and negative…

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of using scientific news in science class on the perspective of 7th-grade middle school students against technological developments in science. In this study, a single group pre-test post-test experimental design was used. The research group of this study consists of 46 students studying in a public…

In this article, the authors discuss the possibilities and benefits of inquiry-based learning at National Park Service (NPS) parks, historic sites, and their companion websites. They also stress that you can extend the guidance and resources that may be provided by any historic monument or park close to your school, whether it is a part of the NPS…

School safety is an important topic, and the existing trends in school shootings have increased the desire for implementing best practices in the safety of schools. Implementing trained and armed staff has been suggested for consideration as a best practice, but parents' perspectives on such has not been studied. The gap in research related to…

According to the authors, we live in a society that is deeply influenced by technology, and social studies classrooms are ideal places for students to conduct inquiries into timely and relevant technological issues. In this article, the authors describe an approach that can be used across many situations to teach students to think critically about…

Background or Context: This research is situated against the backdrop of viral racial violence, global uprisings for racial justice, a polarizing presidential election, the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, widespread economic precarity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside such urgent reminders of the need for liberatory education, the daily…

This research sought to develop argument as a problem-solving process by adding debate to social studies instruction with three groups of fifth-grade students. This design-based research (DBR) reports on the ways that instruction was refined across three topical units to develop argumentative agency and a critical participatory literacy. Students…

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unanticipated event that has exposed human fragility in an interconnected and interdependent world. While impacts are of a global magnitude, they have been felt at the most local of levels. Across the world pupils' daily lives and experiences have been directly impacted by government-imposed measures and restrictions…