Examining the Relationship Between Labor History and Critical Consciousness

• In Event: Examining How Teacher Thinking and Knowledge Impact History Classrooms: Studies with Preservice Teachers

Abstract

This case study examines how preservice social studies teachers engage with labor history and develop political and ideological clarity through a semester-long methods course. Drawing on frameworks of critical historical inquiry and ideological clarity, we analyze how exposure to activities which trouble narratives of progress within the Gilded Age, New Deal, and Civil Rights Movement shape preservice teachers’ content knowledge, class consciousness, and pedagogical design. Data from interviews, lesson plans, and a culminating virtual museum project reveal that these experiences disrupted dominant narratives and equipped teachers to include nuanced, intersectional histories in their future classrooms. Initial findings suggest that integrating labor history in teacher education supports civic learning, challenges neoliberal assumptions, and advances teaching for social justice.

Authors

• Michael A. Krecker, Baylor University

• Kevin R. Magill, Baylor University