What Kind of Citizen Are You?

What Kind of Citizen Are You?

Introduction

As a future social studies teacher, one knows why he or she wants to teach social studies.  What are the ultimate goals one wants to fulfill as a social studies teacher? Surely I will want to retain my job and ensure my students make it to the next level of study of course.  However, the ultimate goal is to prepare our pupils to be ready to take on the world.  I’m blogging in response to the readings covered in ECI 535.  This blog focuses on the overall methods of how to effectively teach social studies by implementing content that enforces a citizenship education. 

Citizenship Education

As professional educators, we want our students to understand the complexities of life, to realize and reach for their fullest potential, and finally, to be able-bodied Americans who are civic-minded, responsible, and participatory citizens.  In essence, we want to teach a Citizenship Education that is outlined by the NCSS Task Force on Revitalizing Citizenship Education.  Teaching facts is not enough.  We as educators must instill in our students exactly what we want for our children; to be skillful, competent, rational, able-bodied, and have a social consciousness that makes them aware of the world around them (Beal, 2009).  Equating the ultimate goal of the social studies experience to fully developing matters of the “head, the hand, and the heart” (Beal, 2009, p. 31) speaks volumes to me.  All three parts of the body are integrative and without one the other would cease to function.   The NCSS provides 10 themes that encompass what teachers should be asking themselves before, during, and after they teach a unit.  Asking these questions about one’s methods, strategies, content, etc. is vital and provides a sound checklist when creating a unit with the mindset of teaching a citizenship education.

Elements of the Citizenship Education

Laura Johnson and Paul Morris (2010) break down the ambiguities associated with the terms that are sometimes loosely interchanged, critical thinking and critical pedagogy.  I assumed there was a difference and their article cleared that up for me.  While critical thinking can be construed as more abstract and technical, critical pedagogy separates itself by focusing on enforcing through education, “politics; society and interaction; the self; and reflection, action, engagement and possibility” (Johnson & Morris, 2010, p. 92).  The most important piece of their article was how they broke up critical pedagogy into a comprehensive framework that outlines and defines concepts that embody the responsible, participatory, and justice-minded citizens that government/society wishes to develop in their future generations.  To not want this end would be foolish; to not seek this end would be highly irrational.  It is our birthrights as citizens in a free country to want to climb up the economic ladder, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps to succeed in life.  Yet, without the base knowledge, the desire, the knowledge through experience, one will never make it out of the darkness of ignorance, thus succumbing to dominant dictums and life full of passivity.

Teaching and Learning Social Studies

                

        One question that I’m sure is poignant to other future teachers that is certainly on my mind is, How can I effectively teach?  That is, how can I create units that are not boring and facilitates motivation in my students?  The authors of Teaching Social Studies in Middle and Secondary Schools (2009) are very helpful with providing resources, avenues, examples, and criterion on how to teach social studies. They not only provide information expounding on resources, but they show how to access these resources and give the students' responsibility while connecting to these resources all at the same time.  From insisting that service-learning projects truly embody a citizenship education to actually showing how to get the public to notice and work with these projects, this go-to-guide has it all! I will definitely use this wealth of knowledge over and over again!

Little Lectures?

     

        One quick read that parallels Professor List’s guide to “Flipping the Classroom” spoke about new methods to shorten down long lectures into 60-second clips.  Libby Morris (2009) writes a ponderous journal-type entry about this new and intriguing way to keep your audience’s attention.  In this age of instant access, anything at the click-of-the-button, and short attention spans, this may be a way to hit your audience with the important points.  However, I do agree with Dr. Morris in that this method of 60-second lectures may be more properly titled “active learning” and not so much a lecture.  Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe a true lecture (a good lecture in the social studies standpoint) is more like a story, bringing the audience in, hooking them, and finishing up with response/questions/conclusion. 

Teachers as Air Traffic Controllers 

     

        McKeown and Beck (1999) define constructivism in their article “Getting the Discussion Started.”  They show how this style of teaching for understanding by guiding, helping, and assisting has greatly enhanced student cognition, retention, and responsibility.  This quote by a 5^th grader emanates why constructivism works.  She said, “If you don’t think about what you’re reading and you just read, that’s not reading.  You’re just looking at scribbles on a piece of paper” (McKeown & Beck, 1998, p.124).  Constructivism takes lots and lots of effort.  I know that I will have to employ this method of teaching that gives the student’s responsibility in an effort to have them use constructivist thinking, while they themselves are making an inquiry into a topic or merely reading a chapter from a book.  Marking, turning back, revoicing, and modeling; these are all methods employed by this way of structuring the classroom environment.

Teaching through Constructivism

                

     To complement McKeown and Beck’s article, Edward Jadallah’s (2000) essay entitled “Constructivist Learning Experiences for Social Studies Education” discusses the interrelationship between knowledge and experience.  This article was a bit more scholarly than the former, which I deemed more of a cheat sheet on constructivism.  I really like how Jadallah explained how teaching facts are only relevant when they tie into a concept that “is relevant and applicable to the students’ lives” (Jadallah, 2000, p. 224).  Because we live in a society that is constantly changing, our teaching should embrace and nurture this realization.  Past experiences along with the present clothed in personal experience bring learning to the forefront of the student’s cognitive, social, and physical experience.  All-in-all, teaching in a constructivist manner is a sure way, especially in the middle school arena, to ensure students are learning and absorbing the content necessary for them to succeed in life.

Concluding Remarks

        I know this release of traditional, paternalistic control will be very challenging for me within the classroom.  Yet, I realize that in order to teach an effective citizenship education that enforces the critical pedagogy framework, this practice will have to become permanent in my classroom.  Perhaps before my liberal education at UNC, working in extreme conditions and traveling the world experiencing different cultures and different ways of life, I might still be stuck in a one-sided frame of mind.  But now, as a lifelong learner and one who wants his pupils to succeed, I will make a concerted effort to establish myself as a constructivist.



Bibliography

Beal, C., Bolick, C. M., & Martorella, P. H. (2009). Teaching Social Studies in Middle and Secondary Schools (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Jadallah, E. (2000, September/October). Constructivist Learning Experiences for Social Studies Education. The Social Studies, 221-225.

Johnson, L., & Morris, P. (2010). Towards a framework for critical citizenship education. The Curriculum Journal, 21 (1), 77-96.

McKeown, M. G., & Beck, I. L. (1999, November). Getting the Discussion Started. Educational Leadership, pp. 25-29.

Morris, L. V. (2009). Little Lectures? Innovative Higher Education, 34, 67-68.