Teaching About the Land: A Review of Literature in the Social Studies Field

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Development, Teaching Practice, and Student Conceptions in Social Studies Education (Table 10)

Abstract

Given the primary focus of social studies to develop young people as part of an interdependent world, social studies teachers are aptly situated to address land-based issues as part of the greater ecological crisis the land (Earth) is experiencing. This literature review analyzes what and how teachers teach about the land and what informs their teaching through a lens of land education and a developing critical land pedagogy framework. Preliminary findings indicate that preservice and practicing teachers critically engage land education elements in their learning and classrooms at varying degrees or not at all. By applying a land education framework, the author hopes to critique settler colonialism and highlight possibilities for Indigenous ways of knowing in curricular decision-making.

Author

• J'Shon Lee, Arizona State University