Through the Lens of Social Studies, What Has Changed for Refugees to the U.S. since the COVID-19 Pandemic Began? An Inquiry Lesson for Secondary Education: a Journal for Readers, Students and Teachers of History

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, every aspect of daily life is being altered in response to the virus. The pandemic has altered secondary education. Classes online, teachers struggling to learn Zoom and make lessons meaningful and relevant to students. Students struggling to make sense of this moment, struggling with mental health issues due to the loss of routine and in many cases contact with adult role models. Unfortunately, in times of crisis such as these some of the most disenfranchized people in society are completely overlooked and forgotten, such as refugees. However, if more teachers were to leverage the social studies potential of current events such as the Coronavirus, greater empathy would be felt for marginalized people more starkly impacted by the pandemic, leading ultimately to a heightened sense of civic engagement among the next generation. The purpose of this paper is to assist teachers in guiding their students through analyzing current events, such as COVID-19's impact on refugees, toward developing civic mindedness. In addition to this, the paper will discuss some of the broader societal impacts the virus is having within the United States, as well as ways in which this event may be viewed as a historical subject in the future. The paper will begin by building the content knowledge of high school social studies teachers through addressing the following question: "What is the difference between a refugee entering the United States now versus one year ago before the COVID-19 pandemic?” Following this, the authors will present an inquiry-based learning segment designed to teach the History correlated to the COVID-19 pandemic to a classroom of secondary education students. The inquiry template follows the standard C3 format utilized by the State of Connecticut.

Teaching controversial issues during a presidential election: Exploring how teachers navigated polarized politics in 2020

American politics today is the culmination of historical, political, social, geographic, and economic events that have significantly impacted this country. Over the last year, America and the world have been tested to political, social, and economic extremes not seen in over a century because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Both the 2020 Presidential election and the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 are just two of the events that challenged teachers and educators across all levels of schooling to change and adapt teaching practices. It has forced citizens to have difficult conversations about democracy, equality, health, and safety. Educators tasked with teaching government and civics are required to teach political parties and the functions of government. However, in this current socially distant and polarized political climate, doing so was tremendously difficult. For some high school students and teachers, teaching secondary government is only a nine-week crash course into the functions of the government and rights outlined to students. Nine weeks to teach the functions of government, Constitution, rights of citizens, powers of the president, courts, and how federalism and states interact. Furthermore, only a small minority of students who take government courses do so during a presidential election cycle. This reality underscores the importance of understanding how teachers help students navigate such an important function of government. In this polarized political climate post-2016, it is of interest to study how teachers have prepared to teach the election and document their experience navigating campaign issues. This study hopes to shed light on the educational strategies and expectations of secondary government and civics teachers teaching controversial political topics surrounding the 2020 election. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Social Studies University Students' Perspectives of e-Learning Classes: A Case Study

Instructional institutions have worked hard to improve their curricula and educational activities to keep up with the information and communication revolution. E-learning is one of these applications that stands out the most since it has changed how traditional education is delivered at institutions and the responsibilities and roles of students and teachers. This study explores how social studies students perceive the effectiveness of online courses offered by Jordanian universities. Data was gathered using a questionnaire that contained scales for e-learning quality and student satisfaction. A Jordanian university 's 421 students made up the study sample. The results showed that the overall content quality of e-learning courses was medium. The student's level of satisfaction with the quality of the e-learning classes was moderate, and the e-learning classes' form quality was very high. According to the study, providing lessons with a clear hierarchy or framework is best to make learning easier. Additionally, the study suggests including as many students as possible in the e-learning session and hearing their opinions.

Justice-centered education amid the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new saliency to educational efforts to ensure every person is able to make effective personal decisions and participate in civic affairs. However, social and political systems often constrain individual opportunities to enact personal decision-making. These sociopolitical contexts necessitate an increased emphasis on justice-centered education that equips students to recognize and respond to inequities in local and global contexts. In this article, we present three case studies of areas relevant to K-12 education to which the pandemic has drawn critical attention: how scientific knowledge changes, how decisions are made about science-based issues, and how the impacts of such decisions cascade in the environment. Collectively, these cases highlight the importance of justice-centered pedagogies for learning about complex socioscientific issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and how transboundary justice-centered education could support the meaningful convergence of environmental education, science education, and social studies education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

It Can Be Done: Engaging and Powerful Social Studies Education Using Technology

My biggest fear about teaching a social studies methods class with COVID restrictions was talking at my teacher candidates and not modeling interactive and engaging social studies education. Social studies education should be engaging and student-centered. In this article, I offer technological adaptations to lessons that center around three main ideas of history/social studies teaching: Promoting Historical Inquiry, Facilitating Discussions, and Supporting Civic Engagement. With advances in technology and digital learning tools, challenging and active social studies instruction can be achieved in a virtual or hybrid learning environment. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' perspectives on the purposes of social studies education: A critical analysis

Throughout the relatively short history of American social studies education, its purposes have shifted in response to social and educational changes. The contest for the American social studies curriculum has continued since its inception, influenced by various stakeholders and educational theorists. Given widespread socio-political turbulence, particularly in the years following the 2016 election, this dissertation takes place at an opportune time to revisit the purposes of social studies.This dissertation explores the perceptions of 21 pre-service and in-service teachers and asks the question, "how do teachers perceive the purposes of social studies education?" To approach this question I adopted a constructivist grounded theory methodology. I conducted 21 interviews and allowed theory to emerge from the data to answer two sub-research questions: "How do pre-service and in-service teachers perceive the purposes of social studies education?", and "How do teachers make sense of complex internal and external pressures and relate to the purposes of social studies education?"Several notable findings emerged from the results. I found teachers adhered to no singular, unifying purpose of social studies education. I argue for a fluid approach to purpose that allows for greater teacher professionalism and autonomy. When faced with pressures such as state policy, teachers exhibited varying degrees of resistance and prioritized their autonomy and the needs of their students. Teachers that resisted state policy were most commonly experienced in-service teachers. Notably, teachers perceived a debate between the importance of skills versus content in social studies education which I framed within existing educational sociology debates on the various dichotomies underpinning educational purpose;between neoconservatism and postmodernism, between instrumentalism and intrinsic meaning, between top-down policy and bottom-up context-driven instruction, between teacher alienation and self-actualization. The majority of teachers believed that developing specific social studies related skills was more important than content knowledge which highlighted a trend away from the intrinsic value of social studies knowledge and towards the instrumentalization of education. Social studies was increasingly defined by its utility. Finally, teachers noted the changing ontology of teaching itself given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and rapid technological change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

An exploratory study: How early childhood preservice teachers construct their understanding of technology integration in a technology-infused social studies methods course

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, the education technology narrative asserted that "New tools hold great promise for teaching and learning, but only when they are used effectively, appropriately and intentionally". In this dissertation, I explored how early childhood education teachers construct their understanding of technology integration in a technology-infused social studies methods course. The preservice teachers came into the course expressing their attitudes towards technology as positive, negative, or mixed. In addition, they articulated their self-perceptions of technology skill as confident, unconfident, or both confident and unconfident. As they continued in this technology infused methods course, they experienced technology as a way to understand, engage, explore/examine, reflect, collaborate/share, and extend their knowledge about social studies. As they experienced different technologies throughout the course, preservice teachers recognized technology as a space for building a community of learners to share and generate knowledge and build learner agency. They also identified technology as a multimodal tool to support learning that simulates realistic experiences, provides creative outlets, and expands opportunities for learning. The preservice teachers described engaging with technology passively, actively, and critically by noticing, extending, and evaluating technology. In their lesson plans, they conceptualized using technology with children in many of the same ways they engaged in technology in the course. Specifically, they created experiences that encouraged young children to explore/examine, collaborate/share, and extend their learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

AN INVESTIGATION ON THE VIEWS OF TEACHERS ABOUT DISTANCE EDUCATION IN SOCIAL STUDIES COURSE

The purpose of this study is to examine the opinions of teachers who take the social studies course towards distance education. In the research, a simultaneous design, one of the mixed method designs in which quantitative and qualitative paradigms are operated together, was used. The study group of the research consists of 105 social studies teachers and 69 classroom teachers working in different provinces of Turkey in the 2020-2021 academic year. Convenient sampling method was chosen. In order to collect the data, a questionnaire called “Social Studies and Classroom Teachers’ Views on Distance Education” developed by the researchers was used. Quantitative data were subjected to descriptive analysis, and qualitative data were subjected to descriptive and content analysis. It was observed that a significant part of the participants continued their distance education activities online and found the participation level of the students in the lessons low in this process. Teachers do not find it appropriate to provide information, skills, values and gains in their fields through distance education. Most of the teachers did not perform measurement and evaluation activities in the distance education process. Teachers do not find it appropriate to carry out measurement-evaluation processes remotely on the basis of basic issues such as reliability, validity and usefulness. © 2022. Milli Egitim.All Rights Reserved

A case study on the implementation of disciplinary literacy with multimodal design in social studies

Social studies education provides education researchers with a less common opportunity to discover multimodal instructional methods for disciplinary literacy. During a 12-week period in 2021, four social studies teachers with at least one history course in a large suburban Mercer County, New Jersey school district participated in a case study to showcase how disciplinary literacy can be implemented using multimodal design. Given the existing lack of research on instructional literacy design for secondary grades, this study provides researchers and practitioners with multiple perspectives on how to maximize teaching practices in underrepresented areas of education. Significantly, social studies teachers will thus be able to build a highly effective set of disciplinary literacy activities that incorporate multimodalities, whether in a remote, hybrid, or traditional setting. The main research question for this study is: What are the experiences of teachers implementing disciplinary reading instruction using multimodality? In turn, the research sub-questions consider: How does the prior academic and/or professional background of participating social studies teachers influence the implementation of disciplinary literacy with multimodalities? To what extent are teachers reflecting on the effectiveness of the implementation of this practice?The instructional design for this study is based on Lave and Wenger's (1991) situated learning: within the series of mini lessons, learned literacy takes place for students through participation while the whole person acts in the world. Participants were selected through purposive sampling in conjunction with the district's central office administration. With the district looking to advance disciplinary literacy for all subjects over the next decade, the most collaborative-oriented social studies were selected, specifically either honors- or academic-level history courses. Through the case study, participant educators developed their understanding of how disciplinary literacy is attained for students, particularly through relationship-building and social practice. The overall findings highlight positive experiences from teachers after implementing a series of disciplinary literacy-focused mini-units with multimodalities. Since this study uses entirely qualitative methods, the data invites further analysis using different qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method approaches to determine the best means to implement disciplinary literacy within history education, both during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Sosyal Bilgiler Dersi Öğretim Programında Yer Alan Farklılıklara Saygı Konusuna Ílişkin Etkinlik Önerisi

Bu araştırma, sosyal bilgiler dersi öğretim programında yer alan farklılıklara saygı konusunda öğretmenlere uygulanabilir bir etkinlik sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Ayrıca ilgili konunun öğrencilerde karşılık bulmasında etkinliklerin önemini ortaya koymayı da hedeflenmektedir. Bu amaç çerçevesinde mevcut araştırmada "Farklılıklarımız Zenginliklerimizdir" isimli bir etkinlik hazırlanmıştır. Etkinliğin uygulaması, Aksaray ili merkez ilçesinde yer alan bir ilkokulda 2020-2021 eğitim-öğretim yılı içerisinde gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonuçlarına bakıldığında, dördüncü sınıf öğrencileri ile gerçekleştirilen bu etkinliğe öğrencilerin katılım gösterme konusunda istekli oldukları görülmüştür. Ayrıca öğrenciler Covid 19 salgınının verdiği olumsuz havadan sonra bu tarz eğlenceli ders etkinliklerinin kendilerini mutlu ettiğini ifade etmişlerdir. Etkinlik sonucunda öğrenciler daha önce farklılıklara saygı konusunda öğretmenlerinden birçok şey duyduklarını ama ilk kez böyle bir etkinlikle bu konuyu ele aldıklarını ve mutlu olduklarını ifade etmişlerdir. Ayrıca farklı konulara ilişkin etkinlikler için araştırmacıları tekrardan derslerine davet etmişler ve ders bu şekilde tamamlanmıştır.Alternate :This research aims to present an actionable activity to teachers about respect for differences in the social studies curriculum. In addition, it is aimed to reveal the importance of the activities in finding the corresponding subject in the students. For this purpose, in the current research, an activity named "Our Differences Are Our Wealth" has been prepared in the present study. The implementation of the activity was carried out in a primary school in the central district of Aksaray province in the 2020-2021 academic year. It was observed that the students were willing to participate in this activity, which was carried out with fourth grade students. In addition, students stated that after the negative atmosphere of the Covid 19 epidemic, such entertaining lesson activities made them happy. As a result of the activity, the students stated that they had heard many things from their teachers about respect for differences before, but that they addressed this issue for the first time with such an activity and they were happy. In addition, they invited researchers again to their lessons for activities related to different subjects and the course was completed in this way.

"Your generation is going to do this right": A qualitative case study of critical citizenship education in an eighth grade social studies classroom

This qualitative case study explored the implementation of critical citizenship education in an eighth grade social studies classroom. This research was guided by Johnson and Morris' (2010) framework for studying critical citizenship education and took place in a public charter school located in a capital city in the southeastern United States. The main teacher participant was a Black female social studies teacher with twenty years of teaching experience. Data collection occurred over a period of approximately seven weeks and took place in an entirely virtual environment due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Data sources consisted of over thirty days of classroom observations, class instructional materials, a daily teacher's journal, two semi-structured teacher interviews, eight informal teacher interviews, and two semi-structured interviews each with four student volunteers. Constant comparative data analysis included multiple cycles of coding. Findings from this study highlight the teacher's own critical orientation towards citizenship and the salience of modeling her sense of identity for her students. The teacher adopted a humanistic approach to history education, through which she hoped to expand her students' understanding of history while also engaging them in inquiry into human values and culture. The tensions between the teacher's professional goals and her personal identity influenced her decisions about disclosure and controversy in the classroom, and she maintained students' optimism by infusing a critical curriculum with messages of hope. These findings reveal opportunities for future research and offer important implications for students, teachers, teacher educators, and the field of social studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)