Theorizing Practice Through Horizontal Expertise: Developing "Critical Elementary Social Studies" Through Online Communities of Practice

• In Event: Examining Citizenship, Culture, and Community in the Social Studies

Abstract

Online communities of practice have become an essential space for teachers and teacher educator’s professional development; in particular, research highlights how these online spaces afford opportunities to center teacher knowledge and practice as a site of theorizing about learning. Drawing on a content analysis of the Critical Resources for Elementary Social Studies (CRESST) Facebook group, we examine the group’s online practices as a community of horizontal expertise. This study argues that the group is simultaneously collectively constructing and operationalizing the field of “critical elementary social studies.”

Authors

• Katherina A. Payne, The University of Texas at Austin

• Katy Swalwell, Iowa State University