Engaging With Difficult Knowledge of U.S. Wars in Elementary Social Studies Methods Course

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the need to understand teaching and learning not just as cognitive but also as affective experiences that are imbued with emotional complexity. There is also an emergent body of research on how to teach difficult knowledge of war. Joining this scholarship, this article presents research findings on how preservice teachers feel and experience difficult knowledge of World War II in the Philippines when they are encouraged to develop emotional self-awareness in the learning encounter, reconsider the dominant narratives on war, and reflect on their implication in response to difficult knowledge of war as a future teacher. The findings inform pedagogical conditions that may be beneficial if we are to engage preservice teachers with difficult knowledge of war and guide them to contemplate how they are implicated in their learning to become a critical teacher.

Keywords:

• Teaching about war
• elementary social studies methods
• preservice teacher education
• difficult knowledge