“Laboratories of Democracy”: A Situated Perspective on Learning Social Studies in Detracked Classrooms

Abstract

Many of the primary aims of social studies education mesh with detracking reformers' goals of creating more equitable and democratic learning environments. However, little empirical data exist on detracked social studies classrooms. This article reports the results of a qualitative, cross-case comparison study of detracking in the ninth grade social studies classrooms of three public high schools. Employing a situated perspective on learning, it describes how the practices of two of the three detracked classrooms constituted learning in ways that allowed students to experience democratic exchange and develop civic skills and orientations. Detracked social studies classrooms have potential to be the “laboratories of democracy” Dewey describes, but only if detracking is accompanied by a shift in how knowledge and learning are constituted through discourse and practice in the classroom.