Supporting the Political Practice of Social Studies Teaching Across the Teacher Education Continuum
Social studies teaching inevitably involves regular, multidirectional political activity, even though educators may attempt to keep politics out of their work to avoid conflict and accusations of bias. Rather than positing the political dimensions of teaching as a contextual backdrop, the authors of this chapter represent politics as pedagogical practice. They argue that social studies teacher educators ought to grant such practice, like mediating conflicting policy demands and brokering the place of public policy problems in the curriculum, the same status and attention they bestow upon planning, instruction, and assessment. To make this case, the authors draw from examples in pre service teacher education and in service professional development, concluding with a set of recommendations for rethinking social studies teacher education to accommodate political activity as an enabler and a mode of pedagogical practice.