This multiple case study traced how secondary preservice social studies teachers grappled with understanding race/racism in their reading of the novel, All American Boys. Participants, all self-identified as white, consisted of two cohorts of students who attended a large midwestern university and were enrolled in an advanced social studies…

Social studies education and research can and must play a central role in sustaining democratic societies. As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of this vital journal that aims to strengthen social studies education, democratic societies face numerous serious challenges. Although today's circumstances are unique, many of our current challenges…

This study investigated an approach to teaching students to evaluate online information in the context of a high school history class. Over the course of a semester, I collaborated with a teacher to teach and refine a series of eight lessons focused on "civic online reasoning." We aimed to use students' historical reading as a bridge to…

This instrumental case study examines how elementary teacher candidates (TCs) came to understand citizenship and civic engagement after participating in a news group project during the 2020 presidential election season. TCs formed a binary understanding of civic engagement as "passive" vs. "active," viewing themselves as active…

Fostering a sense of civic engagement is considered an essential purpose of social studies education. However, given the ways in which formal civic curricula and standards decenter the impact of racial membership on civic status, Black teachers are turning to alternative, out-of-school sites to enact critical approaches to teaching civics.…

Critiques of traditional civic education as exclusionary toward individuals and groups that are linguistically, culturally, and age-diverse have led to critical civic education that foregrounds the experiences and assets of Communities of Color. Elementary-aged Children of Color face civic marginalization because of their multiple identities,…

Grounded in theories that establish connections among democratic listening, relational dimensions of citizenship, and civic engagement, this mixed methods case study takes up preliminary findings from prior research and explores processes that allow for empathic listening in democratic education and the outcomes promoted by empathic listening. The…

This conceptual article uses new materialism, and its particular focus on material things, as a lens of analysis in social studies education in order to demonstrate alternative ways in which social studies education researchers and teachers might engage in inquiry. Historically, social studies curriculum and teaching have centered human agency and…

This article details a national study of U.S. K-12 civics and government state-mandated standards, drawing specific attention to how Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty are represented. Utilizing QuantCrit methodologies informed by Tribal Critical Race Theory, this study makes visible colonial logics embedded within state civics and government…

Drawing on data from a multi-sited study examining making and makerspace technologies' impact on early social studies education, this article explores how two 1st-grade children mobilized digital media to write (right) a personal issue of geo-civic injustice. Using speculative civic literacies and sound studies as conceptual tools to interrogate…

Quality civic education is often understood as involving discussions of controversial social and political issues, a task made more difficult for teachers amidst the kind of political polarization that characterizes the current political climate. This study explores high school social studies teachers' thinking and sensemaking related to…

This study explores how globalization, migration, and citizenship education intersect in four northwest European democracies. In this study of secondary schools serving students from immigrant backgrounds in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland), I interviewed teachers and students and observed…

In communities historically shaped by processes of "de jure" and "de facto" segregation; police repression; and lack of access to equitable housing, jobs, and labor-rights, young people find very little of this content reflected in their school-based learning. These societal "civics lessons" indicate the need to move…

The dynamic of how civic education is framed during turbulent periods is illuminated through analysis of three Hong Kong official civic education curriculum guidelines (1985, 1996, 2012). Guidelines are publicly available, officially sanctioned statements of purpose that have particular relevance for education professionals and are used around the…

Civic education historically has focused primarily on preparing students to influence politics and government policy. Less attention has been paid to the curricular implications of civil society, even though it is a crucial site for deliberatively informed action and one of the primary ways in which students will enter the public sphere. This…