Elizabeth E. Saylor - Böcker

The field of elementary social studies is a specific space that has historically been granted unequal value in the larger arena of social studies education and research. This reader stands out as a collection of approaches aimed specifically at teaching controversial issues in elementary social studies. This reader challenges social studies education (i.e., classrooms, teacher education programs, and research) to engage controversial issues--those topics that are politically, religiously, or are otherwise ideologically charged and make people, especially teachers, uncomfortable--in profound ways at the elementary level. This reader, meant for elementary educators, preservice teachers, and social studies teacher educators, offers an innovative vision from a new generation of social studies teacher educators and researchers fighting against the forces of neoliberalism and the marginalization of our field.The reader is organized into three sections: 1) pushing the boundaries of how the field talks about elementary social studies, 2) elementary social studies teacher education, and 3) elementary social studies teaching and learning. Individual chapters either A) conceptually unpack a specific controversial issue (e.g. Islamophobia, Indian Boarding Schools, LGBT issues in schools) and how that issue should be/is incorporated in an elementary social studies methods courses and classrooms or B) present research on elementary preservice teachers or how elementary teachers and students engage controversial issues. This reader unpacks specific controversial issues for elementary social studies for readers to gain critical content knowledge, teaching tips, lesson ideas, and recommended resources.

The field of elementary social studies is a specific space that has historically been granted unequal value in the larger arena of social studies education and research. This reader stands out as a collection of approaches aimed specifically at teaching controversial issues in elementary social studies. This reader challenges social studies education (i.e., classrooms, teacher education programs, and research) to engage controversial issues--those topics that are politically, religiously, or are otherwise ideologically charged and make people, especially teachers, uncomfortable--in profound ways at the elementary level. This reader, meant for elementary educators, preservice teachers, and social studies teacher educators, offers an innovative vision from a new generation of social studies teacher educators and researchers fighting against the forces of neoliberalism and the marginalization of our field.The reader is organized into three sections: 1) pushing the boundaries of how the field talks about elementary social studies, 2) elementary social studies teacher education, and 3) elementary social studies teaching and learning. Individual chapters either A) conceptually unpack a specific controversial issue (e.g. Islamophobia, Indian Boarding Schools, LGBT issues in schools) and how that issue should be/is incorporated in an elementary social studies methods courses and classrooms or B) present research on elementary preservice teachers or how elementary teachers and students engage controversial issues. This reader unpacks specific controversial issues for elementary social studies for readers to gain critical content knowledge, teaching tips, lesson ideas, and recommended resources.

White Christian Nationalism is “an ideology that seeks to idealize and advocate a fusion of American Civic life with a… White Christian ethnoculture” rooted in traditionalism, anti-immigration, and their judicial codification (Gorski & Perry, 2021). Though the Establishment Clause clearly delineates a boundary between religion and state. Despite the clarity of this division in the Establishment Clause, this bedrock of our democracy has faced nearconstant pressure from Christian right. Recently, this pressure has taken the form of strategic efforts to stack the Supreme Court of conserative judges and control local school boards by waging fear and misinformation campaigns. Political division, a lack of healthy discourse about religious diversity, and misunderstandings about the Establishment Clause have left many educators unsure about their role in valuing religious diversity in their schools and classrooms, and their responsibilities to maintain religious freedom for all students.This book leverages the power of story to animate the dangerous legal and cultural assault on the separation of church and state in U.S. public schools. All of the chapter authors attend to these themes from distinct vantage points across education theory and research, K-12 education, and teacher education, addressing issues such as religious freedom, education law, teacher and student identity, and teaching for inclusive, critical citizenship in a contentious U.S. political context. Additionally, authors offer practical resources for responding to enemies of religious freedom, White Christian nationalism, and xenophobia as it is manifested in policy and practice within K-12 and higher education.