Despite psychology's position within the National Council for the Social Studies' definition of social studies, the American Psychological Association is advocating the rebranding of psychology as a science course. This study interviews six high school psychology teachers and employs a Foucauldian framework to understand different perspectives on…

This study aims to articulate how the language of the geography curriculum privileges modernist discourses of global citizenship at the expense of others. Drawing on the work of two critical scholars, empirical data from South Korea reveals how geography education professionals (GEPs) engaged closely with the (re)production of geographical…

This study explores how the ideology of racial individualism--which prioritizes an understanding of racism as individual wrongdoing--becomes embedded in the curriculum and discourse of the middle school social studies classroom and becomes embedded in the curriculum and discourse of the middle school social studies classroom to shape the racial…

While recognized as a foundational practice, social studies educators struggle with enacting inquiry-based instruction. With critical inquiries that examine sociopolitical and other injustices, developing aligned compelling questions represents a challenge, particularly for elementary teachers. Informed by four lenses of criticality from social…

Civic education historically has focused primarily on preparing students to influence politics and government policy. Less attention has been paid to the curricular implications of civil society, even though it is a crucial site for deliberatively informed action and one of the primary ways in which students will enter the public sphere. This…

This conceptual article uses new materialism, and its particular focus on material things, as a lens of analysis in social studies education in order to demonstrate alternative ways in which social studies education researchers and teachers might engage in inquiry. Historically, social studies curriculum and teaching have centered human agency and…

This study examined how U.S. entry into World War I and related pedagogical reforms of the early twentieth century impacted elementary social education at a local level. Analysis of state curriculum guides, records from the collection of a rural school educator, report cards, and daily attendance registers for four counties indicated that…

In this conceptual piece, we situate settler colonial theory and qualitative inquiry in a discussion about the research(ing) of social studies education. The context for this article includes our visit and conversations with 9th grade Oklahoma history teachers and their teaching and curriculum within Indigneous contexts. Although not focused as an…

Compared to other groups of color, Asian Americans and their perspectives have rarely been given attention in curriculum studies. This article seeks to address the gap in the literature. It uses AsianCrit, a branch of critical race theory, as a theoretical lens to analyze and explicate common patterns across various states' scripting of Asian…

Using an analytical framework based on the concept of historical distance, this article explores how Dutch history teachers and educators navigate between the past and the present when making curriculum decisions on the sensitive topic of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. Four history teachers and 2 museum educators were selected on the…

This study explores the enactment and evolution of moral education in Beijing, China. In particular, the author examines the extent to which moral education teachers develop reflective thinking and broach controversial issues within their classrooms. Drawing on interview data from secondary moral education (deyu) teachers, professors who prepare…

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one's discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, "Word Generation" is a cross-content…

This document-based historical study explores the nature of the Jewish social studies curriculum in American Jewish schools in the early 20th century (c.1910-1940), a period of significant growth and reform in the modern American Jewish education enterprise. "Jewish social studies" refers to school programs in which Jewish history, Jewish…

As LGBTQ issues gain prominence in political and social arenas directly related to social studies teaching, the field of social studies can no longer remain silent. The author argues that we need to move beyond marginal programs and an emphasis on anti-bullying measures to examine the heteronormative structures that school students in sexuality.…

This multiple case study traces the influence of cultural biographies on the curriculum decision making of two Latino preservice teachers who student taught in standards-based schools. These participants drew on their personal and cultural experiences to disrupt the "official" curriculum, which they believed failed to address fundamental issues of…