Theory: How Do Teachers UNlearn What They Know?

• In Event: "When You Know Better, DO Better": Racial Literacies and Teacher (Un)Learning

Abstract

Justice must be at the center of history teacher education, including preservice teacher preparation and inservice professional development. This paper outlines a framework of history for justice, which includes three core components: social inquiry, critical multiculturalism, and transformative democratic citizenship.

Over the past three decades there has been significant work on historical inquiry and disciplinary thinking (Monte-Sano, 2010; Reisman, 2012; Wineburg, 2001) and its usefulness in citizenship education (Barton & Levstik, 2004; Lévesque, 2008). However, as Salinas and Belvins (2014) have argued, these views of historical inquiry and thinking are incomplete, as they do not deliberately challenge students to critically examine the past or look at the role that social identity, power, and privilege has played in history. To address this, historical inquiries must focus on social inequity and social change over time.
History teachers should design the curriculum to be both critical and multicultural (Author 2, 2016; Author 3, 2017; May & Sleeter, 2010). The curriculum must not only include multicultural voices and perspectives, but center on how racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression and discrimination have influenced history, which has led us to the present and will lead to the future. It requires teachers having thoughtful considerations of whose voices are and are not included in the curriculum, and when underrepresented groups are included, if their representation is accurate and authentic.

History learning communities should be built around fostering transformative democratic citizenship (Banks, 2017) and help students develop a sociopolitical consciousness and cultural competence, which are essential citizenship skills in any multicultural state and globally (Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2006, 2014). Therefore, preservice teacher preparation and inservice professional development should be organized around the content and pedagogy of history for justice. For example, in both history content and methods courses, preservice students should participate in social inquiry by doing historical inquiries that include the voices of unrepresented groups and focus on inequity. Moreover, teachers should develop and share lesson plans using social inquiry in these preservice and inservice teacher education opportunities, to help build teaching repertoires to do this work.

Additionally, to drive home the concept of critical multiculturalism, history courses should require a majority of content relate to underrepresented voices and how inequity has functioned over time. Currently, many history courses focused on Euro-centric history. Instead, preservice and inservice teachers would be taught content related to the experiences of people of color in the U.S. and globally. They would also learn about the structures behind racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination that have developed over time.

Finally, preservice and inservice teachers must have chances to consider ways that their classrooms can foster transformative democratic citizenship. This includes learning about ways that various groups were disenfranchised from political systems in the past leading to the present. Teacher education programs would then support teachers in integrating activities in their history classrooms that have students authentically engage in citizenship focused on making the world more just.

Author

• Christopher C. Martell, University of Massachusetts - Boston