"What Does Voting Even Mean?" U.S. History Teachers' Sensemaking About Disjunctures in Civic Education

• In Event: 42.083 - Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: 42.083-7 - Domestic and International Diversity in Social Studies

Abstract

Young people from marginalized groups often have civic experiences that conflict with what they learn in school-based civic education. This qualitative case study explores two U.S. history teachers’ experiences with these disjunctures by analyzing interview data through the framework of sensemaking. Findings suggest school and policy contexts, teachers’ frames regarding making change, and their own experiences as students in school influence their sensemaking about dissonance between traditional civic education and political inequality.

Author

• Rebecca Cooper Geller, University of California - Los Angeles