State departmentTEA ProgramUtah State University

General Seminar

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Fields of Contention:

Democratic Education

and the Range of Perspectives

in the Social Studies Curriculum

Steven P. Camicia, Ph. D.

Utah State University

Curriculum

Curriculum becomes our way of contradicting biology and ideology.

Grumet, M. R. (1988). Bitter milk: Women and teaching. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. p. 8.

Curriculum

The school curriculum communicates what we choose to remember about our past, what we believe about the present, what we hope for the future.

Pinar, W. F. (2004). What is curriculum theory? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Publishers. p. 20.

Positionality

Geopolitical

BelongingGender

Ethnicity

Clas

s

Cultu

reAge Sexual Orientation

Language

Ability Rac

e

Field of ContentionRange of Perspectives

Field of Contention: Controlled by Power Relations, and

Hierarchies Binaries of Domination and Subjugation

Democratic Education

•Empowerment

•Inclusion

•Legitimacy

•Social Justice

Fields of Contention: Democratic Education and the

Range of Perspectives in the Social Studies

Curriculum-

Some Examples

Example 1:

Content analysis of social studies instructional materials teaching about deliberation and immigration policy.

Camicia, S. P. (2007). Deliberating immigration policy: Locating instructional materials within global and multicultural perspectives. Theory and Research in Social Education 35(1), 96-111.

Camicia, S. P. (in press). Identifying soft democratic education: Uncovering the range of civic and cultural choices in instructional materials. The Social Studies.

Instructional Materials Teaching

Deliberation and Immigration Policy

Choices National Issues Forums

Deliberative Instructional

Materials

Background Information

Policy Option

1

Policy Option

2

Policy Option

3

What should we do? Our Policy

Conceptual Framework

Range of Deliberative Options

Curriculum Ideology

Global DimensionMulticultural Dimension

Two Dimension Analysis

of Instructional Materials

Nation-bound Perspective

Global Perspective

Multicultural Education

Monocultural(Mainstream-Centric)

Education

HeadingSubheadingText

Chapter Title: “America’s Changing Face: Is There Too Much Difference ?” (p.7)

Chapter Text:“Limit the number of newcomers. Otherwise, America risks losing its soul, its definition of itself. When people live in tight little ethnic communities, when they speak only a foreign language and call home often, they don’t assimilate” (NIF, p. 27).

Nation-bound Perspective

Global Perspective

Multicultural Education

Monocultural(Mainstream-Centric)

Education

“Limit the number of newcomers. Otherwise, America risks losing its soul, its definition of itself. When people live in tight little ethnic communities, when they speak only a foreign language and call home often, they don’t assimilate” (p. 27).

National Issues Forums

Methods (Continued)

After coding, deliberative options and background text were positioned upon the model.

Concept of scatter plot or cluster content analysis (Krippendorff, 1980).

Nation-boundGlobal

Monocultural

Multicultural

FindingsNational Issues Forum

MulticulturalEducation

ActionApproach

TransformativeApproach

AdditiveApproach

ContributionsApproach

MonoculturalEducation

Global Perspective

Nation-Bound Perspective

Findings (Continued)

Choices

MulticulturalEducation

ActionApproach

TransformativeApproach

AdditiveApproach

ContributionsApproach

MonoculturalEducation

Global Perspective

Nation-Bound Perspective

Findings (Cont.)

MulticulturalEducation

ActionApproach

TransformativeApproach

AdditiveApproach

ContributionsApproach

MonoculturalEducation

Global Perspective

Nation-Bound Perspective

Choices

Background Text: Racism and Immigration Policy

Potential Student-Developed Option

Potential Student-Developed Action Plan

Discussion

National Issues Forum

Choices

2. Choices curriculum is substantially more transformative in its approach to Multicultural Education

1. Both curricula are nation-bound in perspective

MulticulturalEducation

ActionApproach

TransformativeApproach

AdditiveApproach

ContributionsApproach

MonoculturalEducation

Global Perspective

Nation-Bound Perspective

MonoculturalPerspective

MulticulturalPerspective

Global Perspective Nation-Bound

Perspective

1

42

3

2 3 1

CHOICESNIF

5

NIF Background

Text

CHOICES Background

Text

Student Interviews With Immigrants

Possible Development of Global and Multicultural Perspective

X Axis = Scale of Civic Allegiance

Y Axis = Scale of Cultural Allegiance

Content AnalysisContent Analysis

Example:

Inquiry23

Some sample inquiry questions

The following are sample inquiry questions developed by Parker (2005, p. 326)

• Who really “discovered” America?

• What happened to the Anasazi at Mesa Verde?

• Why did the Titanic tragedy occur?

• Why did the Pony Express end suddenly?

• Why is there poverty in rich nations?

• Why do so few adults vote in the United States?

• Who benefits from advertising?

Parker, W. C. (2005). Social studies in elementary education (12 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

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Sample Geography inquiry lesson

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