Preaching History in a Social Studies Methods Course: A Portrait of Practice

Abstract

This article presents a portrait of practice of one social studies methods professor engaged in teaching his course and analyzes the choices the professor makes during the semester. These choices are linked to his philosophy of social studies education with particular attention paid to his passionate belief in the American story as the core of elementary social studies education. Through interviews, extensive field notes collected during the semester, and a collection of all corresponding documents, a portrait of the social studies methods professor (Dr. Henry Merrill) emerges. Merrill uses Hirsch, Ravitch, and Hakim as the foundation on which he builds his methods course. He believes his preservice teachers are “knowledge conveyors” and therefore need to know large amounts of historical information in order to pass that information on to their students. However powerful or flawed we may view Merrill, the issue remains that the idea of “common practice” in social studies methods courses may not be too common.