Search

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the subtle racist rhetoric used by members of the Republican Party over the last 60 years connected to issues of race. The authors start by providing a brief history of the Republican Party and race issues. Then, the authors discuss the civic thinking skills stressed within the C3 Framework, specifically the ability to analyze politicians' arguments. Then, the focus shifts to look at the racial literacy framework discussed by King et al. Finally, three activities are provided that enable students to grasp the subtle racist rhetoric used by some Republicans connected to issues of race. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper, the authors explore race issues with members of the modern Republican Party. The authors design three classroom-ready activities by drawing on the best teaching practices advocated for in the C3 Framework. To elaborate, these activities allow students to research and analyze arguments made by some Republican politicians. This enables students to engage in the four dimensions of the Inquiry Arc in the C3 Framework. Findings - The authors provide three activities that can be utilized in the high school social studies classroom to enable students to dissect American politicians' messages connected to race issues. These activities can be adapted and utilized to enable students to examine a political candidate's messages, especially those that contain subtle racist rhetoric. By completing the steps of these three activities, students are better prepared to be critical consumers of political messages and to hold elected officials accountable for their words, policies and actions. Originality/value - In this paper, the authors explore the role of racist political rhetoric employed by members of the Republican Party over the last 60 years. The authors use the racial literacy framework advocated for by King et al. in three classroom-ready activities. The three activities are provided to help students break down the racist political rhetoric employed by notable members of the Republican Party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Problem-based learning (PBL) has long been a regular feature in professions outside K-12 education and is growing in social studies education in recent years. PBL is built around student inquiry into an "ill-structured" or "messy" problem (Wieseman and Cadwell, 2005, p. 11). These inquiries are open ended, largely autonomous and student driven (Savin-Baden, 2014). The collaborative nature of PBL scenarios allows students to work with real-world concepts and skills to solve problems (Ferreira and Trudel, 2012). This paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach - This paper describes an innovative strategy for PBL learning, an Escape the Room (ETR) activity centered on historical content knowledge - in this case, the First World War. The activity incorporates a series of ill-structured problems with the First World War as its historical context. Findings - The paper concludes with a discussion of the utility of PBL activities like "ETR" and possible applications in the classroom for teachers. Originality/value - There has been significant research in PBL activities but little in the specific application of "ETR" scenarios, a rising trend in commercially available activities. The potential for student inquiry and engagement is a rich field for social studies educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes findings from a survey of high school students in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida, regarding their views of war and wartime policy. The survey is drawn from, and correlated to, elements of the Just War doctrine, a philosophical framework which forms the basis of most international law, treaties, and conventions. The survey results indicate that students tend to adhere to traditional moral norms regarding the conditions for engaging in war, but have considerable divergences from internationally-held principles regarding how a war is waged. The findings indicate that social studies instructors face impediments in helping students acquire high-level, meaningful conceptions of war as a topic of study. The article describes the necessity of moral and critical inquiry in social studies education and the value of the Just War doctrine as pedagogical tool towards that end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textbooks are a significant element of the social studies curriculum and teacher pedagogical choice (Apple, 2004; Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991). Students' views of American history are dramatically affected by the textbook narratives to which they are exposed, and teachers often tilt their curricular choices based on the textbooks available to them (Luke, 2006 Schug, Western & Enochs, 1997). The history of our nation's armed conflicts is often presented, through our textbooks and our pedagogy, as a history of reluctant violence, which promotes a particular moral agenda that exerts control over our students' future beliefs and decisions. This is particularly important with regard to our textbook depictions of the U.S. CivilWar, which holds a curricular status as a necessary and moral conflict. This study examines the manner in which U.S. history textbooks present the U.S. Civil War, as compared to relevant historiography, and presents recommendations for how teachers may approach the moral realities of war with their students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emphasis on technology in preservice teacher education has become more important with the introduction of new standards from the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (2013). Despite continual efforts by teacher education programs, many social studies classroom teachers still do not effectively integrate technology into their instruction. This article considers the nature of teachers' resistance to such integration, as well as the state of technology in classrooms today, in light of the new national standards. Additionally, this article addresses how teacher education programs may more effectively prepare preservice social studies teachers to use technology in the classroom by examining one university program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]