Social Studies Teacher EducationA-L Halvorsen and S M Wilson, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

ã 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Glossary

Authentic pedagogy – An instructional model

that highlights the authenticity of student

learning and achievement; it stimulates students to

form deep understandings of a topic or discipline and

develop new understandings by adopting

various inquiry methods, collaborating

with others, and addressing real-world public

problems.

Citizenship education – A broad field of study with

goals to help students respect different cultures,

develop the willingness and capability to participate

in politics at different levels, cultivate skills to work

with others, and examine and address environmental

and human right issues in a global context.

Content knowledge – The facts and organizing

principles of subject areas.

Culturally relevant pedagogy – An educational

perspective with the goal of meeting the

academic and social needs of culturally diverse

students; it seeks to make school learning

meaningful and relevant to children’s lives

beyond school.

Global citizenship education – A field of study that

seeks to balance unity and diversity of peoples and

cultures worldwide; it concentrates on the education

of students to understand and appreciate different

cultures, to think and address problems with global

consciousness and compassion, and to collaborate

for the common good.

Multicultural education – An area of study with the

goals of helping all students to develop knowledge,

skills, and attitudes to participate effectively in

democratic society and of creating equal educational

opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic,

social-class, and cultural groups.

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) –

A theoretical perspective for understanding

teaching and learning proposed by Lee

Shulman and colleagues as part of the Knowlege

Growth in Teaching project; PCK is the

knowledge formed by subject matter

knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and

context knowledge.

General Challenges in Social StudiesTeacher Education

As context for understanding the state of current chal-lenges roiling the field, we begin with a very brief tour ofsome enduring and contemporary problems (e.g., purposeand content of social studies teacher education; compet-ing notions of citizenship; the lack of research in socialstudies teacher education; and the content versus methoddebate for preparation courses) faced by social studieseducators and teacher educators. Because the problemsinherent in social studies teacher education are linked tosocial studies education in general, our discussion drawsupon both fields.

Purpose and Content

First is the issue of purpose. Social studies and historyeducation have historically suffered from multiple goals.Often, social studies is earmarked as the curriculardomain responsible for the educating of citizens (althoughone might argue that educating good citizens is the re-sponsibility of all educators, no matter what is the focus oftheir subject area). Others have suggested that social stud-ies concerns the teaching of a set of subject areas, whichcan be narrowly conceived or broad. In the US, for exam-ple, there are some who argue for the teaching of history,economics, and geography alone. Others argue for abroader view. For example, the National Council for theSocial Studies (NCSS), the leading US organization in thefield, lists anthropology, archeology, economics, geogra-phy, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology,religion, and sociology as the core areas of social studiesfocus, complemented by appropriate content from thehumanities, mathematics, and natural sciences. Thus,social studies teacher education similarily faces the chal-lenge of purpose, goals, and objectives. Should the prepa-ration focus on preparing teachers to teach skills forcitizenship, disciplinary content, disciplinary skills, anintegrated approach, and/or community service? Thesegoals, often competing, complicate the role of the socialstudies teacher educator.

A related issue is how to teach these disciplines collec-tively, integrating them as a coherent field of study, whilesimultaneously preserving the integrity of the variousdomains. The enormity of this challenge – providing

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both breadth and depth in numerous disciplines – can beintimidating and discouraging. The social studies teachereducator faces a related challenge: What liberal andspecialized education prepares future teachers to teach abroad sweep of topics that they cannot possibly master indeep ways?

Moreover, the inherently controversial nature of manytopics and concepts related to the social studies – forinstance, equality, liberty, diversity, war, human rights,racism, or terrorism – can be a lightening rod for oftenheated debates. Whose history gets told, who benefitsfrom what economic trend, who has what kinds of rights,where boundaries are located, and who has jurisdictionover whom – these are a handful of issues that socialstudies teachers confront on a regular basis. There aretwo related special challenges for the social studiesteacher educator: First, teacher educators need to recog-nize that their own students – prospective teachers – willhave diverse opinions and views on such topics. Second,those teacher educators need to help prospective teachersbecome educators who can respect the multiple perspec-tives of their own students (no matter what the teacher’sown perspectives may be), as well as create educationalopportunities that might involve surfacing and confront-ing those differences.

Content Knowledge versus Method/Pedagogy

Second, a contentious area in social studies teacher edu-cation is the debate on disciplinary content versusmethod, or pedagogy. Disciplinary content refers to thefacts and organizing principles of subject areas. For thesocial studies subjects, such as history, geography, andcivics, disciplinary content may include significant peo-ple, historical events, the Earth and its peoples, and formsof government. Furthermore, disciplinary content alsorefers to the disciplinary processes or thinking skills.Such processes involve thinking chronologically, inter-preting primary documents, creating and reading maps,and making collective decisions. Generally, educationstudents study such content in their prerequisite coursesin the individual disciplines prior to their enrollment ineducation courses. However, research has shown thatpreservice teachers are often not well prepared in thesedisciplines. This is not surprising given the fact that mostprospective teachers never get too deeply into any onesubject area given the breadth of topics they need somefamiliarity with. As a result, teacher educators in socialstudies frequently teach content as well. The problem thatmay arise for the teacher educator is twofold: insufficientcourse time to teach subject content and insufficient in-depth expertise in all the various disciplines.

Methods courses address the means teachers use toconvey knowledge, skills, and values to their students.They may use general strategies, following the guidelines

of authentic pedagogy; complex instruction; controversialpublic issues; or understanding by design. In their meth-ods courses, preservice teachers are introduced to thesegeneral strategies that focus on content standards, assess-ments, and instructional approaches; or teacher educatorsmay focus on teaching preservice teachers specificinstructional strategies, such as inquiry, simulation, con-cept formation, discussion, and case-based methods. Insuch methods courses, there is the assumption that pre-service teachers have acquired content knowledge in thevarious disciplines.

Social studies teacher educators in methods coursesare directly involved in the content versus method debatewhen they are confronted with the reality of whether toteach content, method, or a combination of the two. Manysocial studies teacher educators argue it is impossible toteach one in the absence of the other – that the dichotomyis actually invalid. However, questions remain about theoptimal mix of content and method, as well as the properextent and nature of the content taught. These questionsare further complicated by the problem that, as LeeShulman suggests, in addition to knowing subject-mattercontent, teacher educators must also know pedagogicalcontent knowledge (PCK), which is the content of com-petent instruction.

Competing Notions of Citizenship

Third, while many social studies education scholars andorganizations consider citizenship training the corner-stone of social studies instruction, they often have com-peting notions of what citizenship is. One list of thedefining characteristics of citizenship was provided by amultinational panel of 182 scholars, practitioners, andpolicy leaders from 26 countries of the Citizenship Edu-cation Policy Study (CEPS). The panel identified whatcitizenship should mean in the twenty-first century:

� ability to understand, accept, appreciate, and toleratecultural differences;

� capacity to think in a critical and systematic way;� willingness and ability to participate in politics at thelocal, national, and international levels;

� ability to work with others in a cooperative way and totake responsibility for one’s roles/duties within society;

� willingness to resolve conflict in a nonviolent manner;� ability to look at and approach problems as a member ofa global society;

� willingness to change one’s lifestyle and consumptionhabits to protect the environment; and

� ability to be sensitive toward and to defend humanrights (e.g., rights of women, ethnic minorities).

Although the CEPS panel’s list is laudable in intent,the citizenship characteristics it identifies are, neverthe-less, very broad and open to multiple (often competing)

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interpretations. For example, interpretation of the fourthbullet, the ability to work with others in a cooperative wayand to take responsibility for one’s roles/duties withinsociety, is vague enough to describe both the passive,law-abiding citizen and the radical, reformer citizen. It isalso possible that the CEPS citizenship characteristicsmay be too idealistic. Depending on geographic, political,and social circumstances, the seventh bullet, the willing-ness to change one’s lifestyle and consumption habits toprotect the environment, may be interpreted by manysocieties as an unrealistic, if not unattainable, virtue.

For teacher educators in social studies, finding anagreed-upon conception of citizenship, at either thenational or global level, presents a challenge. Unlikemathematics where the Pythagorean theorem, for exam-ple, is the same, context to context, a key goal of socialstudies education – education for citizenship – varies notonly between nations, but also within nations. Somecountries refer to the term citizenship as the judicialrelationship between citizen and state, whereas in othercountries, the term refers to the way citizens interact andcoexist with one another.

In recent years, education researchers have focusedon citizenship as commitment to community action.Marilynne Boyle-Baise and Carl Grant have traced theevolution of teaching citizenship in the US from the 1970sto the present and have shown how citizenship, which hadonce been thought of as community participation educa-tion, currently is considered service learning. In the ear-lier understanding, citizenship meant the participation ofsociety in community decision making, but more recentlycitizenship has adopted the Rawlsian ideals of justice thatfocus on collective participation in the distribution ofcommunity resources as a way of promoting the commongood. Both of these notions of citizenship, past and pres-ent, are concerned more with societal action than with theacquisition of knowledge.

Other organizations have offered competing interpre-tations of citizenship that, by contrast, stress knowledge asthe key component of citizenship. For example, in 2003,the Fordham Foundation, a Washington, DC researchorganization influential in educational circles, publishedWhere Did Social Studies Go Wrong? This book, in its back-to-the-basics approach to teaching social studies, arguesthat citizenship studies should focus on the history andcivic knowledge and values of Western traditions. Fur-thermore, the book argues that social studies education(including teacher education) has been hijacked by theso-called forces of political correctness with the resultthat history study has been watered down, replaced bytopics such as multiculturalism, environmental studies,peace studies, and social justice.

However citizenship study in social studies educationis defined, research shows that preservice teachers gener-ally have only a vague understanding of the notion of

citizenship. Their struggle with defining and teachingcitizenship in their classes may be because of the multipledefinitions of citizenship they have learned and becausetheir own experience as participating citizens has beenrather limited. For teacher educators in social studies, thechallenge to find a responsible and neutral way to instructpreservice teachers in citizenship pedagogy is one of theirmost difficult challenges.

Moreover, standards concerning the good citizen saynothing about the fact that many citizens of many nationsdo not want their children to think critically, considerthemselves global citizens, protect the environment, ordefend human rights. Citizenries are conflicted, and socialstudies teachers are not well prepared when they enterschools ignorant of the mismatch between the variety ofassumptions the public might hold about good citizenshipand these normative values. Thus, social studies teachereducators also face the challenge of preparing new tea-chers to sensitively navigate the idealized norms ofschooling and the larger public and community in whichthat schooling takes place.

Lack of Research on Social Studies TeacherEducation

Research on teacher education more generally is limitedin scope and method. Research on social studies teachereducation suffers from similar problems. A commonresearch model in social studies teacher education atpresent is the self-study: an investigation of the research-er’s own practice undertaken to better understand andimprove her/his own teaching. Such case studies onteacher educators’ reflective practice are interesting fortheir description and analysis of the problems, challenges,and successes of the individual teacher educators. How-ever, this research is not easily generalized since it pro-vides no macro-level findings on best practices in teachereducation, and there is considerable variability in thequality of that research.

Another area of research on social studies teachereducation focuses on the influence of methods coursesand field experiences on preservice teachers’ beliefs andvalues, rather than on their acquisition of skills andknowledge. Some studies have found that while therewere important connections between students’ learningin methods courses and their development of beliefs,preservice teachers still had difficulty implementing thepractices learned in the methods courses. Again, thisresearch is similar to much other research concerningteacher education. Samples tend to be modest, instru-ments tend to be locally developed and not validated,and outcome measures tend to be far removed frommeasures of student learning.

In summary, contemporary research into socialstudies teacher education is primarily concerned with

722 Teacher Education – Teaching Specific Domains

understanding the predispositions of preservice teachersand the effect of methods courses on these beliefs. Theresearch tends to be done by teacher educators who arestudying their own programs or practices, and there isvery little large-scale or comparative work to draw upon.One argument against this stream of research is that anunderstanding of preservice teachers’ beliefs has littlerelevance for understanding their teaching approaches;another argument points out that, without evidence ofimprovement in teachers’ practices or student learning,it is difficult to know what insights can be gleaned fromthe current research.

Trends in Social Studies TeacherEducation

Social studies teacher education, like all teacher educa-tion, is not a static activity, but changes constantly inresponse to new trends developed from new researchfindings and policy mandates concerning schooling andteacher certification or licensure. An awareness and un-derstanding of the current trends in the field is useful inenvisioning the development of the field. Three of themost influential trends in social studies teacher edu-cation are authentic pedagogy, global citizenship educa-tion, and multicultural education/culturally relevantpedagogy (CRP).

Authentic Pedagogy

Authentic pedagogy is an instructional model that sets outthree guidelines for curriculum design, instruction, andassessment: (1) construction of knowledge; (2) disciplinedinquiry; and (3) value beyond school. In construction ofknowledge, students should produce or construct newknowledge (as opposed to reproducing knowledge). Indisciplined inquiry, learning should be rooted deeply ina field of knowledge. In value beyond school, learningshould have utilitarian or personal value beyond class-room application. Many scholars of social studies teachereducation believe strongly in the value of authentic peda-gogy as a way to improve learning. Since many disciplinesincluded in social studies are associated with boring ped-agogy (e.g., memorizing countries and capitals and datesof wars), proponents of authentic pedagogy work towardteaching social studies in ways that allow students toprobe content thoroughly and with application to theirlives outside school. This pedagogy is also known asauthentic academic achievement.

The NCSS has also taken an active role in advancingmore authentic instruction in social studies. The NCSS hasidentified five key criteria of powerful social studies educa-tion: meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and

active. The goal of social studies education that meets thesecriteria is to help students build a social understanding ofthe human condition and of their civic responsibility. Oneprofessional development program for social studies tea-chers, produced in partnership with the NCSS, is Powerfuland Authentic Social Studies (PASS). This program definessocial studies education standards based on both theauthentic academic achievement and powerful social stud-ies models. These criteria and standards for social studiesteaching and learning reflect educators’ commitment inmaking social studies relevant and intellectually rigorousfor students.Many teacher educators in social studiesmeth-ods courses use these models to evaluate preservice tea-chers’ lesson plans.

However, research shows that generally preserviceteachers and in-service teachers do not follow such cri-teria and standards in their instruction and assessments.Instead, they follow teacher-centered practices that mixlecture with textbook readings and close-ended question-ing. Some researchers argue that such traditional socialstudies teaching, that de-emphasizes standards, deniesstudents instruction that is intellectually rigorous andrelevant.

Global Citizenship Education

Global citizenship education (GCE) is the trend thatpromotes a global dimension to education by seekingto balance unity and diversity of peoples and culturesworldwide. As the world becomes increasingly intercon-nected through technology, international relations, andhuman rights projects, educators have begun definingthe criteria of a participatory, global citizen. ElizabethHeilman identifies seven capacities of GCE, including afocus on combining talents to work toward the commongood, compassion for others’ situations and concern forhuman rights, and the ability to examine policies andissues critically and ethically. Social studies education,which includes instruction in citizenship, history, andgeography, is well positioned to advance this trend.

For the social studies teacher educator, instruction inGCE presents special concerns. Many preservice tea-chers, as well as in-service teachers (especially those atthe elementary level), are often nervous about social andpolitical issues. Some may not feel prepared for, or com-fortable with, issues of public concern that are of a con-troversial or complex nature. They also worry aboutadverse parental reaction if they make war, religion,race, and so forth the topics of classroom study. In addi-tion, there is a concern that preservice teachers lack thenecessary, in-depth knowledge of world geography andhistory, and of foreign political and economic systems.Furthermore, the global experiences of new social studiesteachers are often limited, and that background knowl-edge and experience might limit their capacity to be the

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kinds of teachers GCE needs. Currently, the sensitivity ofthe issues and the complexity of the instruction makeGCE more of an aspiration than an implemented educa-tional trend in social studies teacher education.

Multicultural Education/CRP

Multicultural education is a field of study that generallyseeks equality of educational opportunity. CRP seeksteaching strategies that advance this goal. The currenttrend in multicultural education and CRP is especiallysignificant in social studies education that features cul-ture, human rights, ethnic and social relationships, andissues of race, class, and gender. Thus, social studiesteacher educators are concerned with teaching the pre-sentation of multicultural subject content in the classroomand with sensitizing preservice teachers to the needs,interests, and skills of students from diverse backgrounds.

Several scholars of social studies education and multi-cultural education have set content and practice standardsfor teachers in this area. Gloria Ladson-Billings, has ledcritically important research on classroom implementa-tion of relevant teaching strategies based on five criteriaof CRP:

1. when students are treated as competent they are likelyto demonstrate competence;

2. when teachers provide instructional scaffolding, stu-dents can move from what they know to what theyneed to know;

3. the focus of the classroom must be instructional;4. real education is about extending students’ thinking

and abilities; and5. effective teaching involves in-depth knowledge of both

the students and the subject matter.

These criteria not only reflect praiseworthy pedagogi-cal practices, but also reflect the idea that culturallyrelevant teaching means expecting high-quality workfrom all students. No distinction is made between thestandards set for students from lower socioeconomicbackgrounds and those set for students from moreprivileged backgrounds.

One of the issues of greatest concern in CRP is theimportance of recognizing racial and cultural diversity instudents. Various scholars and organizations have fre-quently addressed this issue as it relates to classroomteachers. Teacher educators continually emphasize theimportance of connecting school learning to children’slives beyond the school setting, which often means makingthe curriculum more inclusive of the beliefs and traditionsof various cultures and ethnicities. The MulticulturalEducation Consensus Panel, comprised of eight US scho-lars of teacher education, proposed 12 essential principlesfor education and diversity, one of which addresses teacherlearning. This principle emphasizes the importance of

professional development programs that instruct teachersin the relationships among ethnic groups and in the waysstudents’ background (race, ethnicity, language, and socialclass) influence their behavior in schools.

A second issue in multicultural education and CRP isthe generally acknowledged cultural divide that oftenexists between students and their teachers. For example,in the US, many K-12 teachers, especially at the elemen-tary level, are white females from mid- to upper-levelsocioeconomic backgrounds. Similarly, countries such asFrance and Sweden, with increasing numbers of ethnicminority immigrants, experience the same separationbetween teacher and student. Scholars argue that thiscultural disjuncture between students and teachers hascritical consequences for students’ attitudes toward andinterest in social studies education. The argument is notthat minority teachers are superior as social studies tea-chers, but that minority children may be more open tolearning if taught by people of more similar background.

Summary

Owing, in large part, to the controversy in educationaround social studies as a course of study that replacesthe individual academic disciplines of history and thesocial sciences, social studies teacher education is also acontroversial area. Therefore, the social studies teachereducator faces numerous challenges in preparing preser-vice teachers for their work in the classroom. Broadly,these challenges relate to the general questions of whatand how social studies should be taught. Among thespecific challenges that the social studies teacher educatorfaces are the content versus method debate, the issue ofhow to define and teach citizenship, and the lack ofeducation research on the pedagogic experiences andproblems of teaching social studies.

Social studies teacher education is an evolving field,and today many educational trends influence its develop-ment. Standards and criteria for instruction in citizenshipand multiculturalism have been proposed; more relevantpedagogy is recommended to replace traditional methodsof instruction; and more educational technology in theclassroom is available, and its use is encouraged. Each ofthese trends creates both opportunities and difficulties forsocial studies teacher education, especially as one con-siders them together. Meanwhile, there remains a dearthof comprehensive research on social studies teacher edu-cation that could inform how and what we teach newteachers in their professional education programs.

With continued experimentation, discussion, and re-search, social studies teacher education will continue todevelop. There are societal and educational issues, chal-lenges, and trends that schools of education and profes-sional development programs will have to deal with as the

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practice and theory of teaching teachers to teach evolves.Social studies teacher educators, as much, if not morethan other teacher educators, will have to be adaptable,innovative, and committed as they educate preserviceteachers for their teaching assignments.

See also: A Pedagogy of Teacher Education; Character-istics, Scholarship and Research of Teacher Educators;Moral Values in Teacher Education; Pedagogical ContentKnowledge; Teacher Education as Teaching for Under-standing with New Technologies.

Further Reading

Adler, S. (1991). The education of social studies teachers. In Shaver, J.(ed.) Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching andLearning, pp 210–221. New York: Macmillan.

Adler, S. (ed.) (2004). Critical Issues in Social Studies TeacherEducation. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Avery, P. G. (2003). Using research about civic education to improvecourses in the methods of teaching social studies. In Patrick, J. J.,Hamot, G. E., and Leming, R. S. (eds.) Civic Learning in TeacherEducation: International Perspectives on Education for Democracy inThe Preparation of Teachers, pp 45–65. Bloomington, IN: ERICClearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education.

Avery, P. G. (2004). Social studies teacher education in an era ofglobalization. In Adler, S. (ed.) Critical Issues in Social StudiesTeacher Education, pp 37–58. Greenwich, CT: Information AgePublishing.

Banks, J. A., Cookson, P., Gay, G., et al. (2005). Education anddiversity. Social Education 69(1), 36–40.

Boyle-Baise, M. and Grant, C. A. (2004). Citizen/communityparticipation in education: Historic change in terms of engagement.

In Adler, S. (ed.) Critical Issues in Social Studies Teacher Education,pp 145–164. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Brophy, J. and Allman, J. (1996). Powerful Social Studies for ElementaryStudents. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally Responsive Teaching. New York: TeachersCollege Press.

Heilman, E. (2008). Including voices from the world through globalcitizenship education. Social Studies and the Young Learner.

Newmann, F. M., Marks, H. M., and Gamoran, A. (1995). Authenticpedagogy: Standards that boost student performance. Issues inRestructuring Schools, 8, pp 1–12. Madison, WI: Center forEducation Research, Center on Organization and Restructuring ofSchools.

Stanley, W. B. (ed.) (2001). Critical Issues in Social Studies Research forthe 21st Century. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Parker, W. C., Ninomiya, A., and Cogan, J. (1999). Educating worldcitizens: Toward multinational curriculum development. AmericanEducational Research Journal 36(2), 117–145.

Whitson, J. A. (2004). What social studies teachers need to know: Thenew urgency of some old disputes. In Adler, S. (ed.) Critical Issues inSocial Studies Teacher Education, pp 9–35. Greenwich, CT:Information Age Publishing.

Wilson, S. M. (2001). Review on history teaching. In Richardson, V. (ed.)Handbook of Research on Teaching, 4th edn., pp 527–544.Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Yon, M. and Passe, J. (1990). The relationship between the elementarysocial studies methods course and student teachers’ beliefs andpractices. Journal of Social Studies Research 14(1), 13–24.

Relevant Websites

http://www.citized.info – Citizenship and teacher education.http://www.ecs.org – Citizenship Education.http://www.socialstudies.org – National Council for the Social Studies

(NCSS).