The current assessment of the state of political division in the United States is foreboding. Americans are more divided than any time since the Civil War, leaving some to opine that these differences may be irreconcilable. This speculative analysis takes seriously as its point of departure the position of a growing number of American commentators and policy experts who argue that the United States exhibits many of the risk factors that could lead down the path toward another civil war. Some of these commentators have advocated breaking up the union to pre-empt this outcome. The critical analysis within this article draws upon historical analogues from states partitioned during the 20th century such as such as the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Palestine, and India. These comparisons are used to evaluate proposals for a geographical sundering of the United States into Red and Blue Americas. My analysis highlights the ways in which any kind of national dissolution, though appealing to some at first glance, would be more politically complex, demographically fraught, and possibly no-less violent than the alternative of civil conflict. The most promising alternative appears to be that of learning to live and work together through difference.
To demonstrate how the history classroom could become an important site for addressing climate change, this article describes the piloting of three lessons. Our qualitative case study occurred in an elective environmental education course with teacher candidates who participated in the lessons and were invited to provide feedback. We describe the lessons and their development, and share results from surveys and an interview. Participants identified several educational benefits and expressed feeling better prepared to teach both history and critical thinking in general. Our findings suggest that these lessons may serve as useful examples for developing new resources to support educators in teaching climate change alongside critical and historical thinking.
The aim of this paper is to explore how the Alberta Social Studies 30-1 textbook, Perspectives on Ideology (Fielding et al., 2009) can contribute to orientalist discourse in its presentation of Islam, especially with respect to terrorism, extremism, and illiberalism—three concepts that appear in the Alberta Social Studies Program of Study. Using a content and discourse analysis, the study found three central findings that contributed to an orientalist framing of Islam: a lack of nuanced discussion of Islam; positioning Islam as a source of terrorism; and a lack of acknowledgement of wrongdoing following injustices perpetrated towards Muslims in Canada. This study concludes by offering ways in which social studies curricular support materials may interrogate to disrupt orientalist discourse, and challenges social studies educators to critically examine the limitations of some of the most common resource materials at their disposal.
Our paper examines the latest frontier of the “War on Terror,” countering violent extremism (CVE), non-coercive approaches that aim to prevent “radicalization” that may lead to “violent extremism” or terrorism. We look at the recent implementation of CVE in Québec’s education sector. Based on an analysis of key policy documents and interviews with CVE practitioners, we find that: (1) teachers are responsibilized to safeguard society from the risk of terrorism through being expected to “know the signs” of radicalization and to build “resilience,” (2) students are responsibilized as agents who can influence their peers against violent extremist messaging and toward “prosocial” behaviour, and (3) elements of school curriculum are responsibilized, especially social studies education, to provide students with “critical thinking” skills thought to be lacking among those at risk of radicalization. We highlight the inherent contradictions in CVE, which, in Québec, claims to foster pluralism and inclusivity to combat Islamophobia, but as a modality of the “War on Terror” also targets and stigmatizes Muslim communities. Critical discussion of CVE’s social implications are needed to initiate critical dialogue in Canada over the impact of CVE in social services provision and the risk of securitizing the education sector in Québec.
As those of us in the area of history education well know, though often find it convenient to forget, students-actually, most of us-learn just as much about the past from the arts than from sources normally used in the history classroom.Indeed, we probably learn more, and more powerfully, for example, about the French Rebellion of 1832 from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (or its contemporary musical or cinematic versions) or about the Spanish Civil War from Picasso's Guernica than what is taught in school.Similarly, the spirit of the Renaissance and its ideas are more viscerally conveyed-and are impressed upon us in more meaningful and evocative ways-through the paintings and frescoes of Michelangelo, Raphael, Ghirlandaio, and Gozzoli (especially his Procession of the Magi in Florence's Palazzo Medici Riccardi), in the statues of Donatello, or through the clean, rational lines of the architecture of Brunelleschi, than a textbook or classroom lecture ever could.And yet, as teachers, we still, too often, tend to ignore or devalue the significant pedagogical power of these artistic forms and their ability to invoke insight into the past and its people, ones that resonates with us, that invite us to understand, identify, empathize, and wonder.When we do include aesthetic texts in the curriculum, we often do so to highlight their otherness from history-their fictive nature and historical inaccuracy-and, thus, dismiss or "correct" them.There is, it seems, a prevailing assumption among many history educators, as Terrie Epstein (1994a) noted, "that when secondary students encounter the arts in historical contexts, they partake in educational activities that at worst represent a descent into frill or fantasy or at best promote the cultivation of creative, but not academically credible, thoughts or experiences" (p.174).Regrettably, as my own visits to history classrooms indicate, not much has changed in that regard since Epstein wrote this more than a quarter of a century ago.This is not to suggest that the role of the arts-and the promotion of using the arts in history classrooms-has not been explored in the academic literature.In fact, in the last three
We asked: How will an educational field experience in this place impact and inform pre-service teachers and researchers' understanding of placebased education (PBE) in their practice?We explore the shift towards Indigenous perspectives that subtly wove its way through the work and how it framed new ways of thinking about place for our participants and new ways of considering decolonizing
In this article, the author shares a personal reflection of his military and educational experiences in the aftermath of 9/11. He describes his concerns about the ongoing “War on Terror” and the disengaged militarism of the United States and how this has shaped his approach in the classroom. Expanding on his personal experiences, he calls for social studies educators to employ critical pedagogy and peace education to help students develop as thoughtfully and critically engaged citizens who are capable of creating a more peaceful world.
In this article, the author recounts some of the events that occurred on September 11, 2001, when four doomed airlines crashed after being hijacked by 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists, resulting in the deaths of 2,977 people in New York, New York, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and on an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It is at this latter location, where United Flight 93 crashed killing everyone onboard, including 31-year-old Mark Bingham, an openly gay businessman and member of a small group of people who, it is believed, wrested control from the hijackers and brought the plane down. In the years post-September 11, Bingham has become known as a modern-day hero by the various queer communities, while also garnering a high level of notoriety among many mainstream people as well. The author maintains, however, that Bingham’s hero status simultaneously contributes to the dismissal and erasure of countless other queer people, primarily Black, Brown, and transgender, who have also performed heroic acts throughout modern U.S. history. Without diminishing the actions Bingham and the others took on board United Flight 93, the author questions why this particular gay man is remembered, while countless other queer/trans people of color remain largely unknown.
This article traces the evolution of the concepts of radicalization and deradicalization, specifically as they pertain to the social category of youth. It aims to locate and understand the concept of ‘resiliency’ as a deradicalization method and map out resiliency agendas in relation to the settlement of refugee youth. This article sets out to understand the relationship between deradicalization narratives and refugee youth resettlement programs within a broader historical and contemporary socio-political context.
As the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we contemplate and reflect on the current social/political imagination of terror(ism) and U.S./Canadian patriotism. For educators seeking to unpack 9/11 and its reverberations, it is important to highlight Islamophobic and anti-Muslim racism, discrimination, prejudice, and violence, as well as to consider Muslim students’ lived experiences. (Re)thinking about whose voices are included (or not) within the nexus of sociopolitical power is an important step toward justice and then rapprochement within and beyond the classroom. We consider this assemblage of articles to be a distinctly communal effort that responds to and attempts to disrupt the (perpetual) echoes of terror(ism) which became amplified by/through the events of 9/11.
In this article, I discuss a conceptual framework for supporting Muslim students using Culturally Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Pedagogies informed by a Collaborative Inquiry approach. The impact of 9/11 and its consequences on Muslim students’ temporal and social contexts calls for a critical stance that questions teachers’ assumptions regarding Muslim students. I examine Critical Pedagogy as the theoretical underpinnings for employing Culturally Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Pedagogies with the intent of underscoring the significance of incorporating these pedagogies to build upon teachers’ capacities in honouring the voices of their Muslim students and fostering spaces for these voices to speak up. I explore how teachers can engage in Culturally Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Pedagogies through Collaborative Inquiry to meet the needs of Muslim students in ways that acknowledges their narratives and support them in navigating their social and academic environments.
Nearly 20 years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, PA there is a yearly ritual in a majority of US Schools. On the anniversary each year, teachers and students across the US learn about the attacks and memorialize the events. In many classrooms this is done through witnessing the events much like in 2001 for most of the world – through watching news or documentary footage of the events. In this article I use Hall’s concepts of encoding and decoding as well and socio-cultural theories to read these media representations both in the context of 2001 and again 20 years later to understand how these events are placed into broader narratives of US history. Many teachers today focus on the shock and horror of the events, an approach I argue is problematic as the affective response is emphasized over the historical context and consequences. Instead of using these media to foster collective memory, they could instead be viewed as primary sources to inquire into the historical context of the events and response in the form of the Global War on Terror. This approach would allow students to better understand the events leading to the attacks and the impact that the resulting responses by the US and other Western nations have had on their lives and the lives of others around the globe (e.g., Islamaphobia). After 20 years of conflict after these attacks it is time to both remember the victims of 9/11 as well as understand why it happened and the global toll of the response.
Using the author’s personal experiences as a Brown woman living in the United States after September 11, this paper uses post-9/11 violence enacted against Brown citizens to consider the nuances of necropolitics. Specifically, this paper argues that too often everyday acts of violence, such as gaslighting, are central mechanisms of necropolitical control. Frequently, these normalized aggressions make relegating people to the status of the living dead possible. Finally, this paper argues that necropolitics emerges from intra-actions, often causing the ontoepistemological death for communities of color in general and, in this case, Brown people in a physically and psychologically violent post-9/11 United States.
Jules and the first graders sing along with the next verse of the song, excitedly singing "hello" in different languages.The song ends and Jules begins her calendar time on the whiteboard.At one point, Jules asks the students to count to ten all together.After they count to ten in English, Jules asks, "Should we count to ten in Japanese next?Haruka, can you lead us?" Haruka, a Japanese English Language Learner (ELL) student, leads the class in counting to ten in her first language, and the class joins in, as this is a regular routine in their classroom.Transitioning students to the carpet for whole group instruction on the daily calendar is a common occurrence in early elementary classrooms.In Jules' classroom, this was also an opportunity for her to integrate social studies concepts related to cultural geography and diversity (e.g., languages, regions).She did this by highlighting the variety of languages spoken by students in her classroom from Japanese to Spanish.This recognition of multilingualism was done not overtly with an announcement of "this is social studies, everyone!"Rather, Jules stealthily integrated this social studies experience by masking social studies content within the transition time.This creative example of social studies was one of many we observed over the course of one school year in Jules' classroom.The purpose of this study is to explore the ways in which two teachers, Jules (a 1 st grade teacher) and Natasha (a 5 th grade teacher), integrated (intentionally or not) social studies content and skills throughout the day.In the United States, where social studies in the elementary grades is frequently marginalized (Fitchett & Heafner, 2010), many teachers have been asked to or have taken it upon themselves to integrate social studies with other subject areas, especially with language arts (Boyle-Baise, Hsu, Johnson, Serriere, & Stewart, 2011;Heafner, 2017).This study contributes to our understanding of what and how social studies can be taught in elementary classrooms with implications for future research and teacher practice within and beyond the United States.
The triumph of Trump and the ongoing popularity of far right parties across the world have brought into question basic liberal democratic values of a free press, the rule of law, and notions of truth.Reflecting these developments, in 2016 the Oxford Dictionary (2016) recognized "post-truth," as the word of the year.Pointing to an emergent political landscape where "objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief" (Oxford Dictionary, 2016, para.1), the March 2017 cover of Time Magazine equally asked: Is Truth Dead?The implications of these developments for social studies and education more generally are profound.In a recent article entitled History Educators in a New Era, Dr. Peter Seixas (2017) from the University of British Columbia, asserted: "This is a dangerous moment, globally, for the liberal arts, education and research, for democratic values generally, and for history and history education specifically" (para .1).He went on to argue that liberal democratic traditions have increasingly come under attack across the Western world.Populist political agitators like President Donald Trump now present 'alternative facts' to describe provable falsehoods.This trend has led many social studies educators to reconsider what our role should be within this era of alternative facts.Responding to this question, Seixas offers two key pieces of guidance.The first concerns a renewed attentiveness to the historical narratives we teach to our students.In this regard, he challenges the singular focus of many University professors and historians on the flaws and problems with traditional narratives, and the need to examine the dark side of our national past.In the Canadian context, this has included the ways official government policies, aided by popular public support, served to perpetuate racial segregation in schools, the forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples, racialized immigration restrictions, anti-Semitism, the mistreatment of Chinese immigrant railway workers, and the displacement and internment of Japanese Canadians (See: Lund, 2006, p. 38).In order to counter the alt right's apocalyptic view of the world, in place of a focus on such stories, Seixas argues for a new appreciation for a qualified narrative of progressive opportunity and open democracy, which has historically been central to the social studies classroom.He
In her essay, Neoliberalism’s Frankenstein, Wendy Brown (2018) unpacks with meticulous depth how the current neoliberal condition valorizes private venture by eroding trust in the meaning of the social. In an attempt to understand, like Michel Foucault (1977), the governing rationality that generates certain kinds of subjects and their conduct, Brown chooses as her object of study the recent hypervisibility of white male right political rage and the inconsequentiality of truth in the context of a liberal “democratic” nation, the United States. With key leaders now legitimizing bigotry as a form of ‘greatness’, white right rage is given permission to explode onto the scene, crushing political correctness, multiculturalism, plurality and all democratic values, crying liberty and freedom at the helm of hatred and anger. As said by Hannah Arendt (1951), “being right has nothing to do with the objective truthfulness of the Leader's statements which cannot be disproved by facts, but only by future success or failure” (p. 383). Thus, the only reassurance audiences need in a post-truth culture is the constant reassurance that he, the leader, is winning, winning, winning.
Trump has discovered something about epistemology in the 21 st Century.The truth may be real, but falsehood often works better" (
hen I hear people denounce our political scene as "post-truth," I have to wonder when exactly they think it was that politics was determined by the truth?The same goes for those who decry today's "fake news."[…]To claim that with Trump's election we've entered a post-truth era of fake news is to claim that the U.S. was built on truthful politics and media.Political struggle isn't really about an existing truth but rather concerns the formulation of new truths and, more importantly, the materialization of those truths […] The political project involves the power relations that compose truths, and the pedagogical project involves how we engage ourselves, each other, and the world in transformative processes.(Ford, 2018, paras.1-4)
This paper describes the results of two research projects, which were focused upon female students’ historical understanding of feminism. In both cases the researchers found that the student participants harbored ambivalent or negative attitudes towards feminism and saw little connection between the present and feminist struggles in the past. While this attitude could be attributed to a wide range of variables, the authors illustrate that a focus upon the students’ form of historical consciousness and theories of agency can explain the tendency to see a “gap” between past and present. This paper concludes with a call for further research into the interaction between historical thinking, historical consciousness, and theories of agency.
