Teaching About Inequality as a Strategy for Promoting Social Equality

• In Event: International Perspectives on Innovation for Public Education in an Era of Educational Inequality

Abstract

In recent years, efforts to address growing economic inequality have been the focus of social movements, social science research, national and international reports, and media attention around the globe. Many scholars are grappling with how to equalize learning opportunities in order to equalize the development of human capital (Duncan & Murnane; Bradbury et al. 2016). This paper takes as its point of departure the view that young people are more than potential sources of productive labor. They also are agents who make meaning, grapple with moral questions, and deliberate civic issues. As adults, they will be called on to make social policy choices about taxation and the distribution of public resources, and to weigh in on a host of issues that shape and are shaped by economic inequality. Their understanding about inequality is essential for informed civic engagement—including participation in public debates, electoral politics, policy formation, and community mobilization.
This paper reports on a mixed-methods study to examine whether, how, and why U.S. high school teachers address economic inequality in social studies classes. In Spring 2015, our research team conducted a survey with 775 social studies teachers nested in 295 public high schools and 30 elite private schools. The public school sample was stratified by student demographics, school enrollment, and school geography and is representative of U.S. public high schools generally. Survey questions explored curriculum and instruction related to economic inequality, school and community context, teacher background and beliefs, and other topics. In Summer 2015, our research team conducted 50 follow-up interviews with social studies teachers who participated in the survey. The interview sample was stratified by school SES and teacher self-reported political ideology. Each 30-45 minute interview examined one of the teacher’s lessons about economic inequality. In Spring 2016, our research team conducted a second round of follow-up interviews with these same 50 teachers about how they have taught about economic inequality during the 2015-16 school year.
I analyze this rich data set to explore three questions: 1) How frequently do high school social studies teachers teach about economic inequality? 2) When teaching about economic inequality, what topics or themes do teachers address and what instructional strategies do they use? 3) What goals do these teachers have for teaching about economic inequality and what challenges do they encounter in trying to advance these goals? For each of these three questions, I consider how responses vary across a number of dimensions, such as course type, student ability level, SES of the school, political ideology of the surrounding community, teacher training, and teacher political ideology.
This paper presents some of the first empirical research documenting what and how U.S. students are learning about economic inequality in high school social studies classrooms.

Author

• John S. Rogers, University of California - Los Angeles