From the Margins to the Mainstream

Enhancing Social Awareness in the Social Studies Classroom

Edited by Kenneth Cushner and Joanne Dowdy

Understanding and addressing social justice concerns has become a central focus in an increasing number of schools as well as teacher education programs. The activities in this book are grounded in the recognition that personal experience and engagement is essential for meaningful intercultural learning and social justice awareness to occur. The authors of these activities, themselves teachers and teacher educators representing a wide range of disciplines, share their favorite and most engaging strategies they have found to be effective at helping students acquire a level of comfort and insight in what can oftentimes be contentious, challenging and sensitive issues. These hands-on activities actively engage pre-service and practicing teachers in real-life and simulated experiences, raising awareness and providing a foundation for introspection, reflection and discussion around these critically important issues in the safety of the classroom setting.

R&L Education

Pages: 184 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4758-0892-6 • Hardback • February 2014 • $83.00 • (£64.00)

978-1-4758-0893-3 • Paperback • February 2014 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-4758-0894-0 • eBook • February 2014 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / Social Science, Education / Aims & Objectives

From the Margins to the Mainstream

Enhancing Social Awareness in the Social Studies Classroom

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Understanding and addressing social justice concerns has become a central focus in an increasing number of schools as well as teacher education programs. The activities in this book are grounded in the recognition that personal experience and engagement is essential for meaningful intercultural learning and social justice awareness to occur. The authors of these activities, themselves teachers and teacher educators representing a wide range of disciplines, share their favorite and most engaging strategies they have found to be effective at helping students acquire a level of comfort and insight in what can oftentimes be contentious, challenging and sensitive issues. These hands-on activities actively engage pre-service and practicing teachers in real-life and simulated experiences, raising awareness and providing a foundation for introspection, reflection and discussion around these critically important issues in the safety of the classroom setting.

Details

R&L Education

Pages: 184 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4758-0892-6 • Hardback • February 2014 • $83.00 • (£64.00)

978-1-4758-0893-3 • Paperback • February 2014 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-4758-0894-0 • eBook • February 2014 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / Social Science, Education / Aims & Objectives

Author

Kenneth Cushner, Ed. D. is Professor of international and intercultural teacher education at Kent State University, author of numerous textbooks, chapter and articles in the fields of multicultural education and intercultural training, and a Founding Fellow and Past President of the International Academy for Intercultural Research. He also serves as director of the Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching (COST).

Joanne Kilgour Dowdy is a Professor of Adolescent/Adult Literacy at Kent State University. The American Educational Research Association Narrative and Research SIG awarded her book, Ph.D. Stories: Conversations with My Sisters, the Outstanding Book Award for 2009.

Table of Contents

IntroductionKenneth Cushner
Section 1:Addressing Social Justice through Social Studies and Science
Activity #1Futures Window
Kenneth Cushner
Activity #2 What is a Family?
Martha Lash
Activity #3 Ideal Types & Transgressors: Reinterpreting the "family tree"
Experience
Janice Kroeger
Activity #4 Do You See What I See?: Using Critical Role-Play to Help
Prospective Teachers View Activities From Multiple Perspectives
Monica Miller Marsh
Activity #5 From Chernobyl to Fukushima: Teaching for Global Justice
Frans H. Doppen and Matthew S. Hollstein
Activity #6 Global Learning Wiki
Chia-Ling Kuo
Activity #7The Arrow Always Points to the Self: Preservice Teacher Learning
Through Blurred Geopolitical Identities
Jubin Rahatzad, Hannah Sasser, JoAnn Phillion and
Suniti Sharma
Activity #8 The Coalition for Creative Projects
Schea N. Fissel
Activity #9 Conversation Partner Experience: A Win-Win Culture Learning
Encounter
Kenneth Cushner
Activity #10The Intercultural Market: An Exercise in the Development of Cultural Intelligence
Keith Sakuda
Activity #11What Lies at the Bottom ……????? An Inquiry-Based Nature
of Science (NOS) Activity with a Multicultural Twist
Rajlakshmi Ghosh
Activity #12Sexuality, Gender, and Families in the Animal Kingdom:
Lessons from the Wild
Sara Raven
Section 2:Addressing Social Justice through the Social Foundations of Education
Activity #13Critically Examining Gender Roles: Deconstructing the Myth of
“Boys will be Boys, Girls will be Girls”
Alyse C. Hachey and Yolanda Medina
Activity #14 When I Grow up, I’ll Work in the Factory Just Like My Daddy:
Examining Teaching Practices that Perpetuate the Social Class
Status Quo
Yolanda Medina and Alyse C. Hachey

Activity #15 Middle Class Mentality: Using an Online Course Assignment to
Teach Students to Know Self First, Then Other
Randall E. Osborne and Paul Kriese
Activity #16 Getting to Know You: A Simulation to Understand School Context
Joanne Caniglia
Activity #17Person Like Me
Jason C. Fitzgerald and April A. Mattix
Activity #18Crossings, Bridges and Borderlands: An Experiential Assignment for
Multicultural Education
Sofia A. Villenas
Activity #19 Follow the Multicolored Brick Road to Cultural Competence
Nancy P. Gallavan
Activity #20What is my Cultural Identity?
Debra L. Clark
Activity #21Who Am I? Exploring Students’ Social Identities and Social
Inequalities in Cultural Contexts
Jennifer L. Fisette
Activity #22 Bricks in a Backpack: Respecting the Invisible
Diane M. Vetter
Activity #23Preservice Teachers are Students Too: Developing Awareness of
White Identity and Privilege to Facilitate Change for Inclusivity
and Equality
Tracy Lara
Contributing Authors

Reviews

Cushner and Dowdy, along with their contributors, provide an insightful compilation of activities and experiences for future and current educators to examine their beliefs, practices and understandings of social justice. Leading the field of teacher education and foundations, these authors are continuing a tradition of providing opportunities for pre-service and in-service educators to deepen knowledge and skills of diverse populations, develop advocacy positions and become life long stewards of a living democracy for all students.
— Beverly Shaklee, director, Center for International Education, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

This book fills a large gap in pedagogical materials for teacher education. Social justice is often mentioned, but many instructors do not know how to implement it to the needs of their classrooms. The variety in this text means that social justice should never be a topic that gets left behind.
— Jennifer Mahon, University of Nevada Reno