Anand R. Marri

Multicultural Democracy: Toward a better democracy

Multicultural democracy incorporates socio-economic, cultural, and political diversity and goes beyond current conceptions of democracy. It begins by asking these critical questions: Who is and is not participating in democracy and on whose terms? And how wide is the path to participation? These questions serve as a foundation for exploring the three tenets of multicultural democracy: democracy as a path, membership in both large and small publics, and diversity as essential. After explaining the theory of multicultural democracy, I examine the extent to which critical pedagogy, building of community, and thorough disciplinary content contribute to classroom-based multicultural democracy.

Creating Citizens: Lessons in Relationships, Personal Growth, and Community in One Secondary Social Studies Classroom

This article presents findings from a study examining how a secondary social studies teacher used curriculum and pedagogy to help racially/ethnically diverse students from low socioeconomic backgrounds build community to become active citizens with the capacity for democratic living. In particular, the article discusses his emphasis on critical thinking, building of community, and thorough disciplinary content. The resulting pedagogy, Classroom-based Multicultural Democratic Education (CMDE), is a re-conceptualization of democratic education that has the potential to help teachers transform a racially/ethnically diverse politically disengaged student population into an active democratic citizenry.

An Economics Methods Course?: Challenges of Teaching an Economics Education Methods Course for Secondary Social Studies Preservice Teachers.

recent front page of the New York Times contained stories about the structural problems of integrating Hong Kong into the mainland politicaleconomic system and about a U.S. federal appeals court ruling that states may encourage Medicare recipients to use lower-cost generic drugs over the objections of the pharmaceutical industry. Each is an economic story— the People’s Republic of China’s seemingly syncretic combination of market economy and autocratic government, and the proper distribution of the burden of drug costs among pharmaceutical firms, patients, HMOs, and the state. Both have an important impact on national life and require economic understanding. Yet, surveys of adults and high school students point to large gaps in understanding standard economic principles through which these important issues are often analyzed and understood (Gleason and Van Scyoc 1995; National Council on Economic Education [NCEE] 2005; Walstad and Soper 1988). Often it is in social studies classrooms that students first learn to analyze and interpret these situations through an economic lens. Social studies education, according to the curriculum standards of the National Council for the Social Studies (1994), promotes civic competence and the development of informed and reasoned democratic citizens. Put another way, social studies is the “integration of social science and humanities concepts for the purpose of problem-solving and decision-making for developing citizenship skills on critical social issues” (Barth in Dalgaard 1993, 17). The coordinated, systematic study of economics serves these purposes, as evidenced by the placement of economics as one of the ten strands in the NCSS standards: “Strand VII: Production, Distribution, and Consumption.” Thus, economics literacy is integral to the larger goal of social studies educators of creating democratic citizens (VanFossen 2005). Fifteen states currently require the completion of an economics course for high school graduation. The four states with the largest number of students enrolled in public schools (California, Texas, New York, and Florida) all require that students complete a course in economics before graduating from high school (NCEE 2005). In total, nearly 45 percent of high school students nationally are required to take at least a half-year course in economics for graduation (NCEE 2005; Walstad and Rebeck 2000), which makes it the fourth-highest in terms enrollment for a social studies course behind U.S. history (95 percent), civics (78 percent), and world history (59 percent) (Walstad and Rebeck). Moreover, other signs of greater prominence for economics education on the curricular map include the inclusion of economics questions on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests later this decade (National Center for Education Statistics 2004) and extensive funding in No Child Left Behind (2001) for K–12 economics education. Despite the significance and impact of economics education, it remains underemphasized in many secondary social studies preservice programs (Salemi, Saunders, and Walstad 1996; VanFossen 2000; Walstad 1992). This has been a historical trend as well. For example, Galambos, Cornett, and Spitler (1985) reported that preservice social studies teachers on average completed only four credit hours of economics coursework. These four credit hours represented less than 7 percent of the total social science hours required for certification. FurtherAn Economics Methods Course?

Rethinking Diversity in Resegregated Schools: Lessons From a Case Study of Urban K-8 Preservice Teachers

Using the research question “How do urban teacher candidates (TCs) understand socioeconomic, racial, and cultural diversity in resegregated urban educational contexts,” this case study examines the perceptions of preservice K-8 teachers in an urban education program. These TCs complicated diversity by focusing on “unseen” elements that are often overlooked or unpacked in superficial ways in teacher education. We examine how diversity is represented by examining the ways in which an all “Black” or all “Hispanic” classroom can be diverse. This study’s findings may contribute to changing how teacher education programs present diversity in urban classrooms.

Working with Blinders On: A Critical Race Theory Content Analysis of Research on Technology and Social Studies Education.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a critical race theory content analysis of research on technology and social studies education.Design/methodology/approach – This study, using a critical race theory (CRT) framework, investigates how social studies education scholars have critically addressed the intersection between technology and race/ethnicity through a content analysis of articles in the journals Theory and Research in Social Education (TRSE) and Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE) since 1990.Findings – This paper contends that the interaction between technology and race/ethnicity is rarely critically examined in these two prominent social studies education research journals.Originality/value – In light of this neglect, the paper discusses the need for an in‐depth analysis of the reification of low‐level pedagogical methods with racial/ethnic minority students, an unexplored area of research.

Social Studies and Sustainability: A Global Competency Framework

Using the framework of four critical global education competencies, this chapter considers the possibilities in curriculum and pedagogy for social studies to engage the concept of sustainability. Although it is acknowledged at the outset that social studies have just begun to engage with this concept, suggestions are offered for further development of sustainability within the disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts of teaching this school subject in K-12 classrooms.

Teaching the Federal Budget, National Debt, and Budget Deficit: Findings from High School Teachers.

The issues surrounding the federal budget, national debt, and budget deficit are complex, but not beyond the reach of young students. This study finds scant treatment of the federal budget, national debt, and budget deficit in high schools today. It is hardly surprising that high school teachers spend so little time discussing these topics in their classrooms, another finding of this study. As bleak as we found the current state of education about these topics, we also found significant opportunities to teach them in high school classrooms. Specifically, we discuss four recommendations for teachers to infuse the federal budget, national debt, and budget deficit into high school social studies courses.

Content-Driven Literacy: One Approach to Urban Secondary Teacher Education

In an attempt to address perceived shortcomings in traditional content-area literacy preparation, an interdisciplinary group of teacher education faculty developed an approach called “content-driven literacy” (CDL), which was applied to the design of courses to prepare preservice secondary science and social studies teachers. This article describes the development and implementation of the CDL course work and its five elements: reading and writing embedded in subject matter, explicit instruction, planning and modification of literacy instruction, research-based instruction, and the use of diverse content-area texts. The types of knowledge the preservice teacher participants gained from this approach and implications for secondary content instruction are discussed.

Using Law-Related Education to Engage Marginalized Urban High School Students.

Abstract This case study examines the perspectives of a teacher and a set of students in a U.S. history classroom in a “last chance” public New York City high school—with “last chance” being a common term used to describe schools designed for struggling students, those who have a history of truancy, or those who have dropped out. The research question is as follows: How does a skilled teacher engage marginalized students through law-related education in a U.S. history course? Here, this study documents one skilled teacher and his law-related education pedagogy. Specifically, it focuses on how he engaged marginalized urban students by means of emphasizing an open classroom environment, democratic living skills and community building, and thorough disciplinary knowledge and skills. This study furthers our understanding of the ways in which urban students can be better prepared for engaged democratic citizenship in a multicultural democratic United States.