Rethinking Place and Local History in Social Studies Teacher Education

• In Event: Critical and Controversial Topics in Social Studies Teaching

Abstract

This paper reports on a study that examined how teacher candidates used mobile technology and experiential learning to critically examine the processes that shape places over time. Prior to student teaching, participants explored neighborhoods and public spaces, and researched the history as well as contemporary issues relevant to the lives and experiences of their future students. Use of social media provided a forum to critique neoliberalism and race-based public policies, as well as support reflection on the relationships between geography and teaching about social (in)justice in the social studies. Findings inform the work of teacher educators who seek to help teacher candidates think more deeply about how spatial contexts inform culturally sustaining and critically minded pedagogy in the social studies.

Author

• Jason R. Harshman, The University of Iowa