Social Media and a Critical Sense of Place in Social Studies Teacher Education

• In Event: 72.058 - Research on Social Studies Teacher Education

Abstract

Knowing that teacher candidates often work in communities they have limited experience with, teacher education courses that engage candidates in experiential learning opportunities in urban areas have the potential to better prepare teacher candidates to be critically minded educators. This presentation is based on a qualitative research project that examined how teacher candidates developed a critical sense of place-consciousness through experiential learning and the use of mobile technologies. Integrating the use of social media as a forum for sharing and reflecting upon one’s experiences provided opportunity to critique neoliberalism and constructions of space, as well as support reflection on the relationships between geography and teaching about social (in)justice in the social studies.

Author

• Jason R. Harshman, The University of Iowa