How can teachers engage students in participatory civic education in a state like Texas where education policy is interfering with the Rights of the Learner by refusing to allow educators to support students in becoming active participants in vital democratic processes? Texas Senate Bill 3, passed in 2021, prohibits teachers from directly…

Part of media education is showing students other ways of being, knowing, and making change away from social media. Such experiences can allow youth to reflect not only on the benefits and drawbacks of social media, but how they change the flow of our lives. They are then better positioned to choose when to use, or not use social media. Educators…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Asian violence in the United States has risen significantly. Many Asian American students have been disproportionately harassed in schools and fear resuming in-person learning. Thus, educators must resist returning to the old normal. Instead, they can reimagine the pandemic as a portal to justice for Asian…

At the intersection of social studies and world language curricula are opportunities to explore students' prior learning with vocabulary-rich content designed to support language acquisition goals. "Funds of knowledge" is defined as socio-cultural, economic, and historical knowledge from home and community settings. The instructional…

In today's globally connected world, it is essential for students to have an understanding of multiple cultures and perspectives. In this edited collection, Kathy Short, Deanna Day, and Jean Schroeder bring together fourteen educators who use global children's literature to help students explore their own cultural identities. The book lays out why…

"Teaching Global History" challenges prospective and beginning social studies teachers to formulate their own views about what is important to know in global history and why. It explains how to organize the curriculum around broad social studies concepts and themes and student questions about humanity, history, and the contemporary world. All…

This article addresses how far educational institutions have come in designing authentic and meaningful curricula for teaching the Holocaust at the secondary level. Examined in this article are the historical development of Holocaust education in the United States, with a focus on the state of Illinois as a case study, what contributes to the…

How does teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) inform their instructional planning? How can this knowledge be enhanced? In an interpretivist study of experienced secondary social studies teachers' planning, we sought to discover clues to the nature and development of these teachers' TPACK-in-action as it was expressed in…

Social Studies course aims not only the socialization of children but also providing them with some vital skills. And it is obvious that such aim can not be achieved only via the transfer of information and values. Taking as basis the USA practice, Social Studies course was started to be taught in primary schools of Turkey in place of history and…

This article presents four Idea-Sparkers that were submitted by Jason McKinney, a graduate student at Southern Mississippi University and a 1st-grade teacher at Pisgah Elementary in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. First is entitled, "Raceway in the Classroom." This activity can help increase children's fluency and ability to identify numerous…

The history of a neighborhood vacant lot was undertaken by gifted fifth graders. Investigative skills developed included collecting raw data, categorizing data, and reaching conclusions based on the information. Procedures included observing, listing, looking, sketching, note taking, map making, and interviewing. Findings were published in a book…

Defines future studies, identifies several books which may serve as resources for future studies, and offers a collection of ten activities which may be used to "futurize" a classroom. (JDH)

Outlines a framework for designing enriched learning activities in social studies for gifted students. Two examples of learning activities are presented, and analyzed in terms of the framework. The examples, because of their structure and open-endedness, can be used with many age and ability levels. (RM)

Recommends that junior high school social studies classroom teachers incorporate information about the imminent and continuing shortages of energy into the curriculum. One way of organizing this information is as an inverted isosceles triangle in which energy, environment, and social studies education serve as sides of the triangle. Sample lessons…

Offers suggestions for helping students in elementary level social studies classes become aware of their cultural and ethnic roots. Suggestions include directing students to interview parents, relatives, grandparents, and community members; invite people to class to tell why they came to America; investigate contributions of various immigrant…