Pages: 12

Dearest Gentle Readers (we’re saying this in our finest, fancy voices),

Pages: 45

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 20

Chapter 1 outlines what the authors mean by a “better world” and defines foundational terms, like dominant and counter narratives, as well as the social studies disciplines. It also identifies the core principles guiding social studies education for a better world: hope, interconnection, people power, and humanization.

Pages: 23

Chapter 2 acknowledges the many district, state, and federal-level challenges facing educators attempting to engage in social studies for a better world. The authors identify and provide rebuttals for the arguments that social studies for a better world is divisive and indoctrinatory. Drawing from their own experiences as well as insights from educators in the field, they offer practical advice for educators to protect and sustain their work.

Pages: 120

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 25

Chapter 3 examines the problems and pitfalls of normalization, or how dominant ideas about what is good, normal, and natural become unquestioned common sense through the social studies curriculum. The authors explore how ableism, Christianity, and settler colonialism show up in frequently taught topics across the disciplines and encourage readers to disrupt normalization by critiquing, contextualizing, and decentering dominant narratives.

Pages: 24

Chapter 4 examines the problems and pitfalls of idealization, or how teachers downplay, deny, or justify oppression. The authors explore idealization through the examples of erasure of LGBTIQA+ identities and people in World History, the framing of the criminal justice system as fair and functional in Civics, and the glorification of capitalism in Economics. They encourage readers to disrupt idealization by acknowledging and embracing the diversity, complexity, and contention of reality; utilizing archival silences as resources; attributing causes of problems to systems; recognizing students’ full funds of knowledge; deeply and fairly analyzing alternatives; acknowledging a plurality of ideals and co-constructing new ones; and being honest about reality and the work to improve it.

Pages: 23

Chapter 5 introduces heroification, uncritically teaching about canonical figures, and explains its connection to villainification, blaming systemic harm on evil individuals. Avoiding these problems can lead to pitfalls like tokenizing, whitewashing, and demonizing non-dominant individuals; ascribing change to exceptional individuals in formal positions of institutional power; ignoring the impact of everyday people or social movements; and dismissing efforts to hold people accountable for their actions. The authors encourage readers to lean into the complexity of a diversified range of significant individuals’ lives by humanizing rather than heroifying or vilifying them through the teaching of economic theorists in Economics, activists from the Civil Rights Movement in U.S. History, and leaders credited for creating and protecting democracy in Government.

Pages: 21

Chapter 6 examines the problems and pitfalls that can occur with equalization, when teachers include multiple perspectives without regard for their credibility or context in order to avoid accusations of indoctrination or bias. Through the examples of teaching about slavery, current events, and the Global Majority, the authors propose creative solutions for disrupting equalization: using the active voice and appropriate terminology to describe oppression, distinguishing between objectivity and credibility when examining sources with students, and respectfully integrating diverse sources created by marginalized communities.

Pages: 22

Chapter 7 explores how dramatization and gamification can be problematic without critique, context, or debrief time; focuses on winning; trivializes trauma; oversimplifies complex issues; or acts out trauma, especially if educators assign roles based on students’ identities or presume dominant identities. The chapter includes creative solutions for responsible and effective use of movies, games and simulations, and role plays and reenactments in secondary social studies classrooms.

Pages: 62

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 17

Chapter 8 examines four common “roadblocks” educators face when trying to implement the practices recommended in the book and specific suggestions for navigating them. These include content coverage, required standards, meeting the needs of diverse learners, and teaching as a cultural outsider.

Pages: 21

Chapter 9 provides the nuts and bolts of implementing social studies for a better world through curriculum and community building. The step-by-step guide for crafting critical inquiries includes posing questions, planning assessments and evaluations, assembling sources, and developing tasks. The chapter also stresses the importance of a nurturing classroom community, with recommendations for fostering relationships, developing processes for addressing conflict and harm, and proactively preventing harm with community agreements.

Pages: 18

Chapter 10 imagines the future of social studies and suggests ideas for educators working in a supportive climate or who are ready to push their practice to the next level. Examples of dynamic and innovative teaching related to Youth Participatory Action Research, ethnic studies, community collaborations, and arts-based pedagogies are also spotlighted.

Pages: 2

As we close this book, it’s important that we remember where all of this started. We started with a song and call to action. As a part of this call, we hope we’ve made clear that teaching social studies like we’ve always done in the past—through harmful and oppressive lenses—never worked for anyone. The failure to shift our approach has ultimately resulted in us losing sight of our most important task as social studies educators: Revealing the need for, and power of, human connection.