The storming of the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021 shocked the world and challenged democratic norms. Considerations on how to teach the events of January 6th remains an open question, not just for the United States but for other democratic nations, including Germany. This comparative case study explored the similarities and differences in how US…

The aim of this study is to develop a measurement tool that can determine the attitudes of social studies teachers and classroom teachers towards the use of current events in the social studies course. The scale consists of 23 five-point Likert-type items. The scale form consisting of 40 items prepared by the researchers was administered to a…

The aim of this study is to examine how the mental images in the minds of preservice social studies teachers regarding current global issues are illustrated in the cartoons they draw. The phenomenological research design was used in the present study, which was conducted with 39 preservice social studies teachers, who had previously taken the…

This action research study emerged in response to students' struggle to understand what critical thinking is and teachers' corresponding struggle to develop students' critical thinking skills. In my role as an instructional designer, I studied student and teacher reactions to interdisciplinary course design that used disciplinary inquiry,…

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…

Social skills play a central role in shaping individuals who are able to adapt and contribute to society. This article analyzes the comparative social studies curriculum in Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden), focusing on how students' social skills are developed through their approach to learning. The research method used is a…

This paper offers an analysis of Modern Studies, a school subject unique to Scotland. First taught in the 1960s, Modern Studies was originally conceived as an option for students discontinuing their studies in history and geography. Since then, though, Modern Studies has carved a distinctive curricular niche and has become one of the most popular…

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)…

The coronavirus pandemic has presented an opportunity to rethink how social studies education is framed. Using global citizenship education to teach about the pandemic properly places global health within the purview of all people and builds an onramp for teachers and students to make this kind of theoretical framing a mainstream part of social…

Open classroom climate for discussion (OCC) is consistently associated with positive civic outcomes for students, but research on the determinants of OCC primarily focuses on individual- and school-level indicators or uses qualitative or non-representative samples. This study considers how teacher instructional practices influence the presence of…

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…

In this essay, I highlight two ways in which the coronavirus pandemic has influenced the teaching and learning of social studies. First, despite its marginalization and under-investment nationally, the crisis highlighted the significance of social studies by serving as a refuge for youth and families to navigate and better understand this…

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…

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…

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…