Realms of Culture

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Perspectives on the Social Studies

Abstract

The family cookbook containing culinary experiences handed down from one generation to another is more than a collection of recipes; it is an integrated multi textual visual historical artifact of the culture that sustained that family. It is also a tool to deepen understanding of the concepts of culture and diversity; to develop skills in teaching historical analysis and document based inquiry; while covertly leading participants to engage in self-discovery. To justify these claims, the paper investigates a qualitative study of a project that uses the cookbook compiled by a Brooklyn-Italian family as a guide into unique realms of culture and as a resource for an authentic instructional strategy in a graduate Social Studies curriculum and pedagogy course.

Author

• Margaret E. Berci, College of Staten Island - CUNY