Making Citizens

Transforming Civic Learning for Diverse Social Studies Classrooms

Beth C. Rubin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780415874618
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136697487
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

Can social studies classrooms be effective "makers" of citizens if much of what occurs in these classrooms does little to prepare young people to participate in the civic and political life of our democracy? Making Citizens illustrates how social studies can recapture its civic purpose through an approach that incorporates meaningful civic learning into middle and high school classrooms. The book explains why social studies teachers, particularly those working in diverse and urban areas, should infuse civic education into their teaching, and outlines how this can be done effectively.

Directed at both pre-service and in-service social studies teachers and designed for easy integration into social studies methods courses, this book follows students and teachers in social studies classrooms as they experience a new approach to the traditional, history-oriented social studies curriculum, using themes, essential questions, discussion, writing, current events and action research to explore enduring civic questions. Following the experiences of three teachers working at three diverse high schools, Beth C. Rubin considers how social studies classrooms might become places where young people study, ponder, discuss and write about relevant civic questions while they learn history. She draws upon the latest sociocultural theories on youth civic identity development to describe a field-tested approach to civic education that takes into consideration the classroom and curricular constraints faced by new teachers.

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Introduction

Transforming Social Studies Education Through Meaningful Civic Learning

Making Citizens

In the spring of 2010 the Texas State Board of Education made and sustained headlines as they debated and ultimately legislated the content of the state’s U.S. History curriculum. Concerned about the “left-wing tilt”¹ of the U.S. History curriculum, the board

approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

(McKinley Jr., 2010)

Later that same spring, state legislators in Arizona decided that another area of the social studies curriculum, ethnic studies, was inappropriate for the state’s high school students. State schools Superintendent Tom Horne, speaking on May 12, 2010, explained that ethnic studies “is conveying a revolutionary message, a separatist message, a message that makes students hostile toward the United States, which is a country that they will be citizens of, they will be living in”(Arizona Daily Star, 2010). In May, Governor Jan Brewer signed a law aimed to end ethnic studies in Arizona schools (New York Times, 2010).

Challenges to social studies curricula do not only come from the conservative side of the political spectrum. In 1990 the Oakland, California school board, under pressure from citizen groups including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Chinese for Affirmative Action, the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, the Bay Area affiliate of the National Coalition of Education Activists, among many others, voted against adopting the state approved Houghton Mifflin History–Social Science series for kindergarten through eighth grade. A citizen group, Communities United Against Racism in Education (CURE), lobbied hard against the books. As sociologist Todd Gitlin wrote:

CURE pointed to some genuine instances of establishment bias . . . But CURE and other critics did themselves no favors by interspersing valid criticisms among scores of indiscriminate ones. They were so eager to find ethnocentrism in these texts that they seemed to quarrel with the notion that there was or is a dominant American culture . . . When the books singled out minorities’ customs, CURE saw disapproval; when the books didn’t single them out, they saw neglect.

(1996, pp. 9–10)

Debates over the content of the social studies curriculum were and continue to be of great interest to a range of people both within the states within which such controversies take place and nationally. Parents, lawmakers, historians, teachers, politicians, activists, advocacy groups, students, and others weigh in, often passionately, on these discussions of what ought to be taught to public school students in their social studies classrooms, with all parties expressing deep concern about the content of U.S. students’ social studies instruction and the impact of this content on the beliefs and proclivities of our future citizens.

What draws my attention in these cases is not so much the content of the debates or the predictably polarized politics they mark. Rather I would like to highlight something else reflected in these struggles over curricula—the common notion, held by people from all segments of the ideological spectrum, that the social studies curriculum has implications for students’ sense of themselves as citizens; the idea, unquestioned by right or left, that what is taught in our social studies classrooms matters profoundly and has the potential to shape students’ civic identities in particular ways. This belief in the citizen-making power of the social studies has fueled curriculum battles for decades.²

With this in mind, one might expect that social studies classrooms might be seething cauldrons of conflict and debate on pressing national concerns, as some might argue would befit incubators of citizenship. Or perhaps we might predict that they would be inspiring hothouses of patriotism and civic spirit, as others might desire. Yet, as most of us might recall from hours spent in K-12 social studies classrooms, neither of these are accurate descriptions of the school social studies experience in the United States. “All we did was watch movies, handouts, dittos,” remarked Juan, student at an urban high school. “Teachers just give you the book, read out of it, do the work, that’s it,” reflected Sarah, student at a middle class suburban school. “The teachers’ don’t teach . . . they’ll give us a worksheet and we’ll have to read it and then just answer the questions,” Sean, student at a different suburban school, concurred. These comments, a few of many similar sentiments expressed by public high school students talking about their previous year’s social studies classes, hint at how classroom social studies is frequently experienced in the United States.

Over and over in my research and in the research of others, students describe their experiences in social studies classrooms as distinctly unmemorable. Danny, an 11th grade student at Allwood High, a diverse, middle class suburban high school, reflected upon the previous year in U.S. history, saying,

I forgot all the stuff we did last year. Except for a couple minor details . . . I’m not interested in the whole, you know, George Washington thing. Because I feel like you go over that so often. It’s just like, I’m sick of it. So I don’t really pay attention.

Bennie, a student at an urban high school serving a low-income community, tells a similar tale. In his U.S. history class, he explains, “we talked about things that happened like 13,000 years ago, that don’t got nothing to do with today.” Neither instilling patriotism nor fostering civic questioning, it is difficult to make a case that social studies classrooms are vibrant centers of civic learning in the public school system. Indeed, much of what occurs in these classrooms has no direct relation to this charge, often frustrates both teachers and students, and may even contribute to students’ sense of alienation from civic life (Knight Abowitz & Harnish, 2006). If this is where citizens are “made,” what kinds of citizens do such practices make?

Students in most social studies classrooms study history chronologically, learn passively, and encounter the story of the United States as one that is already written, in which citizens are witnesses to history rather than active participants in the narrative. Teachers in these settings feel rushed to “cover” as much as possible, fear “leaving something out,” and are continually frustrated by never being able to “get to today” in their instruction.

Such instructional choices have consequences for students’ civic learning. Learning, in general, takes place amid social settings and interactions. Rather than a process taking place solely within an individual’s brain, people are social animals whose learning is shaped by who is there, what is being done, what materials and activities are available, and what interactions are taking place (Greeno & MMAP, 1998; Lave, 1993; Lave & Wenger, 1991). For example, students in a social studies classroom in which the most frequent educational activities are listening to lectures, reading the textbook, and completing close-ended worksheets and question sets may come to understand social studies as a set of information to be heard, memorized, and reproduced for assessment purposes. On the other hand, students learning in a social studies classroom in which reading, discussion, and writing about controversial and relevant topics is commonplace may understand social studies to be a grappling with relevant and contested issues about which they must form and re-form opinions. This is called a “situated” understanding of learning, and its implications for civic learning and identity are significant. If we wish to cultivate an active, engaged citizenry, then social studies teaching curricula and practices must be designed to reflect and achieve this aim.

This book aims to provide an example of social studies curricula and teaching practices in general, and for U.S. history in particular, that run counter to those described above. Built on current understandings of how diverse young people come to see themselves as citizens, the project described in this book aimed to “make” engaged, critical and skilled citizens able to think deeply about ongoing civic issues and see themselves as participants in our nation’s civic discourse. This book is designed specifically for social studies educators who are looking for compelling examples of how to recover the civic learning aims of social studies, and practical suggestions for how to structure their classrooms to better “make” the engaged citizens we hope our social studies instruction will create.

Diverse Young People and Civic Learning

What sorts of social studies practices might provide for meaningful civic learning? Let us look at an episode of engaged civic inquiry for insight. In this snippet from classroom life in an urban middle school social studies classroom, students engaged in a lively discussion of the Pledge of Allegiance. Amber, Jessica, and Angelica wrestle here with notions of justice, individual rights, and allegiance.

Amber: WE [loudly] are the one nation, under God—one nation.

Jessica: When the Pledge of Allegiance says “under God,” it can’t actually say that and expect people to pledge allegiance to the flag, because there’s other races that really don’t BELIEVE in God. So if you don’t believe in God, why would you pledge allegiance to the flag that states, “Under God?” You won’t . . . it’s . . .

Angelica: Well, me and her [referring to another student] were discussing. She said that it’s not one nation because of segre. . . . like we had segregation, all this stuff, all this hate. But you’re not pledging to the people IN America, you’re pledging TO AMERICA itself.

This brief slice of classroom conversation displays students’ potential for interest in and engagement with complex civic questions. Who is the “one nation” invoked in the Pledge? Does our nation’s history of segregation and “all this hate” provide a challenge to this notion? Can all Americans be expected to agree to a pledge that invokes belief in a deity? What about those “other races” who don’t believe in God; can they be expected to make the same pledge?

Although quantitative measures of civic attainment consistently rank low-income African American and Latino students behind their White and more affluent peers, Amber, Jessica, Angelica, and their classmates—African American and Latino eighth-grade students at a middle school in a low-income urban area— energetically pursued such questions for over two hours, leaving the room reluctantly and still talking. Their personal and community experiences sparked their interest in the discussion, the discussion format encouraged their interaction with each other and with the text, and their engagement with ongoing civic issues was authentic and heartfelt.

Curricular and instructional practices that encourage t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction: Transforming Social Studies Education Through Meaningful Civic Learning
• 2. Essentially Different: Using Essential Questions and Themes for Civic Learning
• 3. Talking Civics: Open Discussion in the Social Studies Classroom
• 4. Civic Communications: Writing and Expression for Civic Learning
• 5. Beyond "Current Events Fridays": Connecting Past to Present All Year Long
• 6. What's the Problem? Civic Action Research in the Social Studies Classroom
• References
• About the Author
• Index