From my colleagues Kris McDaniel in Wisconsin:
There has always been a gap between what social studies research classroom teachers have access to versus what social studies education professors know. The majority of that, I feel, is time and resources. Many social studies teachers would love to take current research and apply it, but accessing scholarly journals is not free, and when you are faced with a foot high pile of papers to grade, or to read a 75 page discourse with a chapter solely on statistics…well, I’m thinking most teachers will do the grading.
In the issue from September that Stef linked below, Elizabeth Washington and Wayne Journell talk about teaching controversial issues, and Paula McAvoy (who wrote the Democratic Classroom with Diana Hess) and Li-Ching Ho talk about professional judgment in determining whether to teach a controversial issue. There is also a piece on teacher political disclosure in the Trump era (sorry, I don’t recognize the author, Rebecca cooper Geller). There’s lots more – but just a taste there.
I think they may really be on to something exciting.
A new open source social studies journal has been launched called ASSERT. You can check out the first issue and sign up for future updates using the link below.
For more information:
Stefanie Rosenberg Wager
Social Studies Consultant
21st Century Skills-Civic and Financial Literacy
World Languages
Iowa Department of Education, Grimes State Office Building
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