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Abstract
Providing middle-grades students the opportunity to engage meaningfully with controversial public issues (CPIs), socioscientific issues (SSIs), or a framework for social justice can be very dangerous work professionally. However, rather than encouraging teacher candidates to eschew controversy, ensuring they receive sufficient training in how to plan and defend their content and pedagogy choices in promoting social justice is critical. As a part of their regularly scheduled learning activities, teacher candidates participated in a sequence of exercises designed to develop their abilities in planning and defending justice-oriented social studies lessons using young adult fiction. This case study examines 8 participating teacher candidates’ experiences, answering the following question: When faced with a parent/guardian upset with content and pedagogy choices teacher candidates made in developing a justice-oriented lesson plan based on either Esperanza Rising or The Hunger Games, what positions do they take to defend these choices?
Notes
1. 1All participating teacher candidates’ names are pseudonyms.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Christopher Andrew Brkich
CHRISTOPHER ANDREW BRKICH is an independent research consultant and a former Instructor of Social Education and Assessment Theory at Georgia Southern University. He is President of BASE-2 Group, LLC, Statesboro, GA 30461. He can be contacted at [email protected].
April Cribbs Newkirk
APRIL CRIBBS NEWKIRK is a Clinical Instructor of Elementary Social Studies Education and a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460-8134. She can be contacted at [email protected].