Dreaming of Social Studies Futures

• In Event: Dreaming Out Loud: Critical Race Theory and Social Studies Futures

Abstract

Objectives
This presentation features authors whose chapters are dedicated to their dreams of social studies futures. Rather than considering what has always been, these authors imagine otherwise, worlds in which those who have always been relegated to the margins of history textbooks are finally at the center and their voices lead rather than being sidelined or suppressed.
Theoretical framework
The authors in this group draw from Black Feminism, Tribal Crit, and ethnic studies in relation to traditional CRT. One author also features BlackCrit, a theory which contends that anti-Blackness is central to how we all make sense of all aspects of human life (Dumas & ross, 2016). These frameworks, combined with the authors’ cultural memories, are used to combat the field’s history of “organized forgetting” and erasure of non-white bodies and knowledge from the curriculum.
Methods of inquiry and data sources
The authors use qualitative methods of inquiry to bring to life their visions for the future of social studies. Namely, testimonio (Urrieta & Villenas, 2013) and counter storytelling (Delgado, 1989; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) are used to share the different authors’ experiences of ‘othering’, exclusion, and violence within the social studies curriculum, classroom, or teacher preparation. Data sources include interviews, poetry, curriculum, a museum website, as well as the authors own experiential knowledge and cultural memories.
Substantiated conclusions
Together, the authors make the case for another social studies that center the cultural memories and histories of BIPOC communities, recognize Indigenous futurities, and work collectively towards Black liberation.
Scholarly significance
It is clear that society is rapidly changing. Students are demanding that the school curriculum change to meet their needs and present a historical narrative reflective of their life experiences. More and more states and school districts are adding ethnic studies courses in schools. Yet the field of social studies remains stuck in the past, refusing to adapt with the times to meet the needs of a changing generation of young people. The presenters provide a clear vision for the future of the field that involves confronting the past and the legacy of settler colonialism and anti-Blackness in order to move towards freedom.

Authors

• Meredith McCoy, Carleton College

• Leilani Sabzalian, University of Oregon

• Sarah B. Shear, University of Washington - Bothell

• Lakota Shea Pochedley, The University of Texas at Austin

• Ramon Vasquez, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Christina "V" Villarreal, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Denisha Jones, Sarah Lawrence College

• Tiffany Mitchell Patterson, District of Columbia Public Schools