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In this engaging guide two experienced social studies educators unpack the oppressions that so often characterize the elementary curriculum-normalization, idealization, heroification, and dramatization-and show how common pitfalls can be replaced with creative solutions.
List of contents
Prologue
Part I
Why Social Studies Can Change the World
1 The Social Studies
2 The Transformative Potential of Social Studies
Part II
Common Pitfalls and Creative Solutions
3 Normalization: Families and Holidays
4 Idealization: Communities and Community Helpers
5 Heroification: The "Founding Fathers," Suffragists, and Civil Rights Movement Leaders
6 Dramatization and Gamification: Immigration, "Westward Expansion," and Slavery
Part III
Planning and Sustaining Anti-Oppressive Social Studies
7 Building Better Curriculum
8 How to Teach Anti-Oppressive Social Studies and Not Get Fired
Epilogue 169
References
Appendix A: Recommended Resources: The Tip of the Iceberg
Appendix B: Educator Tools and Guides
About the author
Noreen Naseem Rodríguez is an Assistant Professor of Elementary Education and Educational Justice in the College of Education and Core Faculty in the Asian Pacific American Studies Program at Michigan State University. She studies the pedagogical practices of Asian American educators and how elementary educators teach so-called "difficult histories" through children's literature and primary sources. Before becoming a teacher educator, she was a bilingual elementary teacher in Austin, Texas for nine years.
Katy Swalwell is Lead Equity Specialist for the Equity Literacy Institute and founder of Past Present Future Media & Consulting. A former classroom teacher and tenured university professor, she explores how social studies education can help people of all ages become better at identifying and disrupting oppression. In addition to publishing research in peer-reviewed journals, practitioner magazines, and other academic books, she has created the
Amazing Iowa children's book series (amazingiowa.com) and co-hosts an irreverent history podcast called
Our Dirty Laundry, which examines white women's complicity in white supremacy.
Summary
In this engaging guide two experienced social studies educators unpack the oppressions that so often characterize the elementary curriculum—normalization, idealization, heroification, and dramatization—and show how common pitfalls can be replaced with creative solutions.
