Social Studies and Multicultural Education

Social Studies and Multicultural Education

Chapter 11 Equity Pedagogy - Waldon and Baxley (2017)

Traditional American Narrative

• 1980 Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States focused on people, events, and processes of the heroic European Conquest of the "New World" ignored. Gave way to the traditional American narrative but excludes the human suffering that resulted from this trajectory of power.

• A decade later social studies educators formulated a new definition of the field and developed a comprehensive set of content and pedagigical standards that reflected the significance of political and cultural diversity.

Traditional American Narrative

• The documents they presented challenged the traditional views of the purposes of social studies education.

• Regardless, many of the resources that current teachers use do not reflect the results of scholarly research of the past 20 years.

Reframing the Traditional American Narrative

• In 1994, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) published guidelines for social studies education.

• The document is built to reflect the accumulation of new knowledge and the notion that the U.S. is a culturally diverse nation made up of citizens who coexist based on shared respect and responsibility for its founding principles.

• Goals and pedagogy acknowledge that the U.S. is a multicultural nation.

Reframing the Traditional American Narrative

• The primary goal of social studies education is to "help young people developed the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in n interdependent world.

• Similarly, the National Association of Multicultural Education (NAME) similarly describes multiculturalism as "a way of learning and knowing which is built on the ideals of freedom, justice, equality, equity, and human dignity as acknowledged in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the constitutions of the Unitid States and South Africa and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Reframing the Traditional American Narrative

• NCSS and NAME standards start from an assumption that effective learning takes place when a students' own life histories and experiences lie at the center of the teaching and learning process.

Teaching Social Studies through a Multicultural lens

• To fully be effective teachers must choose adequate resources, frame questions, and activities that transform more traditional accounts and approaches.

• They must be thoroughly familiar with NCSS and NAME standards to be effective.

• They must be thoroughly familiar with state intructional standards, content scope and sequence expected outcomes of the state standardized testing regime in order to align these to the NCSS and NAME standards while still maintaining school, district standards.

Reframing the Traditional American Narrative

• Social studies teachers must become aware of external opposition to this from a political and social context in which they teach.

• Be aware of board members, legislators, and the lay public along with their agendas.

Reframing the Traditional American Narrative

• NCSS and NAME Principles of instruction: meaningfulness, integrative, values-based, positive academic identities, positives social identities, respectful engagement with diverse people, challenging, active learning, social justice consciousness, social justice consciousness, social justice action.

Multiple Choice

Which NAME principle is this describing? Students of color achieve academic excellence when instructors provide students with curricula and pedagogy that builds on students' experiences and cultural frames of reference outside of school.

• Respectful engagement with diverse people

• Positive social identities

• values-based

• Positive academic identities

Multiple Choice

Who wrote, A People's History of the United States?

• Walt Whitman

• Malcolm Gladwell

• Howard Zinn

• Micah Willy

Multiple Choice

The traditional American narrative in social studies includes:

• A respect for every culture and a fight for equity.

• A focus on people, events, and processes that the story of heroic European Conquest of the "New World."

• An acknowledgement and respect for immigrant languages and culture.

• A focus on celebrating the different melting pot cultures.

Multiple Choice

What does NCSS stand for?

• National Center for Social Sciences

• National Center for Sociology Science

• National Council for the Social Studies

• National Canon for Social Studies

Multiple Choice

NAME stands for?

• National Association of Multicultural Education

• National Association of Multi-ethnic Education

Multiple Choice

What NAME principle is this describing? Students of color achieve academic excellence when instructors provide students with curricula and pedagogy that builds on students' experiences and cultural frames of reference.

• Values-based

• Positive academic identities

• Positive social identities

• Integrative

Multiple Choice

What NAME principle is this describing? The subject matter is taught topically across disciplines.

• Meaningfulness

• Integrative

• Positive social identities

• values - based

Multiple Choice

What NAME principle is this describing? Expecting all students to accomplish learning goals.

• Challenging

• Integrative

• Social Justice Consciousness

• Social Justice Action

Multiple Choice

What NAME principle is this describing? Students can learn to express pride and healthy self-esteem.

• Social Justice Consciousness

• Active learning

• Positive academic identities

• Positive social identities

Multiple Choice

What NAME principle is this describing? Students of color can learn to recognize their own responsibility to resist injustice in everyday life.

• Active Learning

• Social Justice Consciousness

• Social Justice Action

• Positive Social Identities