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Abstract
We conducted a 3-year study to determine what could be learned from the efforts of social studies teachers to navigate the current culture of reform and accountability. Data were drawn from 50 in-depth interviews and 425 surveys completed by P–12 teachers throughout the state. We employed critical social theory to frame the study and interpret the findings. Many participants went to great lengths to navigate the culture to meet their students’ needs and to remain consistent with their own professional convictions. In addition to traditional challenges such as shortages of time and lack of resources, our participants faced heavy pressure to raise test scores, standardize their curricula, and adapt their instruction to the wishes of others. These pressures created practical and ethical dilemmas, fueling frustration and despair. However, efforts to navigate the reform–accountability culture also nurtured critical consciousness, collaboration and unity, and potentially transformative action and hope. We analyze our participants’ efforts to cope with their conditions and discuss implications for teachers and others who wish to support and preserve quality public education.
Notes
aThis item was added after 33 of the interviews were completed.
1. 1We realize the term “mechanism” is itself mechanistic. We use it advisedly.
2. 2A critique of Freire’s early writing is that he seemed to conceive of “oppressor” and “oppressed” in binary terms.
3. 3Teacher education has also fallen in line with the corporate agenda, as evidenced by the recent spate of Apple iPad Initiatives. This may help explain why our survey suggests teacher support from colleges and universities (X = 2.28) exceeds only that which is received from local and state politicians (X = 2.02,where 1 = no support and 5 = full support).
4. 4“As subjects of research conducted by university-based scholars … [too often missing] are the voices of teachers themselves, the questions that teachers ask, and the interpretive frames that teachers use to understand and to improve their own classroom practices” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, Citation1993, pp. 1, 7). This project was both theorized and conducted by teachers and academics. Two of the five authors are still P–12 social studies practitioners.
5. 5For the purposes of this study we considered a “social studies teacher” any practitioner who teaches a social studies discipline or who consciously seeks to prepare students for membership in society. We studied elementary and secondary teachers to examine the full range of perspectives, experiences, and relationships.
6. 6An organization serving schools throughout the state agreed to distribute our requests to building principals and district administrators on their listserv. Approximately 1,700 messages were originally sent, but close to 500 were bounced back without a response. We estimate that about 1,200 inquiries reached the intended recipients.
7. 7The remaining 7% were pre-K, special education, gifted and talented, principals, or did not specify their roles.
8. 8Prior to 2015, the OSTP examinations were called CRTs.
9. 9The sole exception was that the most severe/profound special education students had a portfolio option.
10. 10Apple (Citation2001) argued hegemony has been used to imbue public education with business logics that meet some short-term material needs of working-class citizens while ensuring continued structural domination by the elite.
11. 11Time and again we were reminded of how willing Oklahoma social studies teachers were to try to work within existing constraints to provide quality education for their students.
12. 12Many elementary teachers did not seem to perceive themselves as teaching social studies even though they described conscious efforts to create classroom communities, facilitate cultural understanding and empathy, and help their students learn to function in society. Elementary and secondary teachers alike often appeared to equate “social studies” with academic disciplines such as history and geography rather than viewing these disciplines as a means to an end.
13. 13After the OC3 standards went into effect, Oklahoma history became a tested subject in third grade. However, the majority of our data were collected before the effects of this change could be recorded.