Teaching the US 2018 midterm elections: a survey of secondary social studies teachers

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study was to identify teacher-reported practices related to teaching the 2018 US Midterm Elections and contemporary social and policy issues. In particular, we sought to identify factors that helped explain why teachers were or were not engaging students in the midterm elections and related contemporary issues and what contextual factors may influence their teaching of these contemporary events. We also examined how the teachers’ political views and those of the school community, personal political engagement and engagement with current events were associated with teaching the midterms. Respondents to our online survey, conducted using a regionally stratified sample in late 2018, include 813 US secondary social studies teachers from 48 states. We found that teachers who identified shared goals with colleagues and administrators and who reported having autonomy over their curriculum and teaching said they engaged students in the election and issues regardless of the political context. We also found that teachers in more politically competitive states reported developing skills, norms and classroom contexts conducive for engaging in controversial issues. These findings are important given the rise in populism, partisanship and social stratification in the US and globally.

KEYWORDS:

• Controversial issues
• teacher autonomy
• civic education
• elections
• survey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the William & Mary Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence; Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Jeremy Stoddard

Jeremy Stoddard is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His research interests include the role of media in teaching and learning difficult histories and contemporary controversial issues.

Paul Fitchett

Paul G. Fitchett is Assistant Dean for Teaching and Innovation and Professor of Teacher Education in the Cato College of Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research interests include social studies education and teacher working conditions.

Diana Hess

Diana Hess is Dean of the School of Education and the Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair of Education at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her research interests include examining how teachers engage their students in discussions of highly controversial political and constitutional issues, and what impact this approach to civic education has on what young people learn.