Engaging With the Past: Archival Photographs as Tools for Data and Analysis in Rural Middle School Social Studies (Poster 2)

• In Event: Exploring Critical Data Literacy in K–12 Social Studies

Abstract

The CS for Social Studies project supports integration of computer science (CS) content, skills, and practices into rural middle school social studies (SS) classrooms. The project works with teacher pairs – one SS teacher and one instructional technology resource teacher – to research the impact of a targeted support model (professional learning, coaching, lesson templates, and other resources) on the integration of CS standards, including data and analysis, into disciplinary classrooms.
The project situates its work within SS classrooms and provides opportunities for teachers to interpret CS learning goals within the context of existing disciplinary practices. Primary source document analysis is a critical part of K-12 SS practice and supports students’ engagement in historical inquiry, analysis, and critical thinking (NCSS, 2013; Patterson et al., 2012). The project introduces an extension (Waterman et al., 2020) of existing practice by providing instructional approaches and activities that situate historical photographs as data sources that can be analyzed according to their historical context and meta-data (e.g., photographer, date), annotations, and content (NCSS, 2023). When students see primary source photographs as data representations from a moment-in-time, it is expected that they can examine, think critically about, and draw inferences from different forms of data representation and visualization, capacities described in CS learning standards (CSTA, 2017).
Key elements of the project’s data and analysis approach include: (1) using primary source materials to elevate non-dominant perspectives and representations of historical events, and (2) decomposition and analysis of photo elements. A recent workshop introduced the practice of decomposing photo elements into quantifiable data, for example by counting the presence of specific people or objects in photos, and creating visual representations of the data counts for analysis. The workshop also introduced photogrammar and other archives of historical photographs.
Data collected from participants during the 2022-2023 school year (n=4 teacher pairs), including implementation logs, teacher post-implementation interviews, classroom observations, and lesson artifacts, primarily suggested uptake of the first element of the approach. Three teacher pairs used a curated set of historical photos for photo analysis lessons to introduce a WWI unit. Teachers deliberately chose photographs they thought would challenge students’ assumptions about who served in the war by including African-American soldiers, international soldiers, and women working a wartime switchboard near a battleground, in the photo set. Lessons engaged students in qualitative photo analysis and prompted students to draw personal connections to photo content.
The poster will examine classroom implementation data to address the question, How have teachers taken up and enacted a photo decomposition and analysis approach in middle school SS classes, and what opportunities does the approach provide for broadening students’ perceptions of historical events? Data from earlier project cohorts suggests that SS teachers incorporate the examination of photographs, artifacts, or other primary source material at least 2-3 times per month during their regular instruction, indicating that an extension of this existing practice may be a sustainable way to introduce a deeper form of data literacy into SS classrooms.

Authors

• Debra Bernstein, TERC

• Eric Hochberg, TERC

• Santiago Gasca, TERC

• Michael J. Berson, University of South Florida

• Rebecca Dovi, CodeVA

• Kristen Franklin, CodeVA

• Valerie Fawley, CodeVA

• Perry Shank, CodeVA

• David Reider, Education Design, Inc.