From A to Zinn: Helping Elementary Pre-Service Teachers Rethink History Through a Social Justice Lens

Introduction

Educational scholars outlined several challenges to elementary preservice teachers in social studies methods courses. The first challenge is that many preservice teachers have had negative experiences with social studies during their pre-kindergarten to 12^th grade school years, describing the content as uninteresting or boring (Owens, 1997; Ukpokodu, 2003, 2007). Maybe this is the result of the near absence of social studies in the elementary classroom, resulting in secondary experiences focused on basic content and skills versus time on more in-depth knowledge and skills necessary for democratic citizenship (Passe, 2006). As a result, there is a lack of interest in teaching social studies to elementary students, as many preservice teachers put social studies on the back burner, as they believe other content areas are more desirable to teach (Owens, 1997; Perie, Baker, & Bobbitt, 1997; Weiss, 1978). The positioning of elementary social studies to the backburner may be the result of curricular focus on reading, language arts, and math, given the competency testing required for these content areas in most states. The positioning of social studies in the elementary classroom may also be the result of feelings of inadequacy by elementary teachers who may have only encountered introductory level social science courses in their undergraduate programs (Passe, 2006). Passe (2006) calls for teacher educators to advocate for more social science courses in teacher preparation programs. However, additional classes cannot compensate for years of missing or weak instruction in social studies or state governments who focus on test results in math and language arts. Once preservice teachers leave higher education classrooms, they also encounter little to no professional development on teaching social studies to elementary students, only further moving citizenship education to the backburner (Passe, 2006).

A third challenge outlined by Owens (1997) includes confusion over the nature and definition of social studies. A fourth challenge to consider for elementary social studies teacher educators was the selection of what content to share to assist preservice teachers in mastering. Owens (1997) encouraged elementary social studies teacher educators to engage their students in new, challenging, critical, and complex topics, rather than redundant, simple, and general content the students already agree with. Examples could include teaching about diverse perspectives, pushing against hegemony, and sharing how to teach outside of the mainstream curriculum (Hackman, 2005). A final challenge centers on preservice teachers having conflicting or conservative sociological positions. Owens (1997) speculated that many preservice teachers come from middle-class environments. These environments may support conservative sociological dispositions, such as the belief in meritocracy, fairness, and hegemony (Alim, & Paris, 2017; Garcia, 1994; McNamee & Miller, 2004; Owens, 1997; Ukpokodu, 2007). These dispositions could make it a challenge to convince preservice teachers to adopt and teach the notion of working together to improve society and for teacher educators to engage their students in meaningful conversations about social injustices affecting the increasingly diverse student population (Garcia, 1994; Owens, 1997; Ukpokodu, 2007). Considering Owens’ (1997) call for elementary social studies teacher educators to engage their students in new, challenging, critical, and complex topics, this chapter presents a social justice instructional framework for fellow teacher educators who teach elementary social studies methods courses. This framework may be of particular interest to those who may struggle with how to share methods for delivering social studies instruction to elementary students with pre-service teachers, who have conflicting or conservative sociological positions. What will be emphasized in this chapter is the need for content mastery of critical and challenging sociological issues of race/ethnicity, economic status, and gender in the development of the United States. The need for content mastery will be coupled with methods for integrating diverse ideas and perspectives, outside of the mainstream or standard curriculum, into the teaching of elementary social studies.