To what extent should a social studies teacher's personal worldview impact their teaching? Is it inevitable that a teacher's personal biases and presuppositions will impact their classroom? How comfortable will you be with displaying your own worldview through your teaching? Social Studies, perhaps more than any other discipline, poses this dilemma for teachers. How will you grapple with this as you craft your own philosophy of social studies education?
Give a thoughtful response to these questions and then comment on two or more of the other posts (for this you might want to wait a day or two to let the discussion build).
* One note* Before class on next Tuesday (1/20), the pages numbers for the Singer book (in the course outline) are for the 2nd edition - you should read the entire first chapter for this week and then one chapter per week after that.
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12 comments:
This question is one that I have thought a lot about recently, and I am not sure that I have come to a concrete conclusion. I think it is inevitable that a teacher’s worldview is going to be a part of the classroom. The teacher’s own philosophy of history will shape the lesson plans in some way. For me I think how much I reveal will depend on the topic. For instance, I have never hidden my personal beliefs from others, but I don’t plan on telling a Civics class who I am voting for in an election year. I think that there is a time for sharing/revealing but there is also a time when a teacher needs to step back and not use the classroom setting as a soapbox for what they believe. In addition I agreed with Singer in the reading when he discussed students creating a worldview for the class in order to receive a good grade only to create a different worldview for the teacher the following year. I hope to be able to foster a learning environment where student’s are able to grapple with real life questions and come to a conclusion that he/she is comfortable with and can defend, regardless if I personally agree with the stance.
This is a question that I have been considering since I was in high school. However, it was prompted by other content teachers rather than my social studies teacher. I think that it is unavoidable for a teacher's personal worldview to impact their teaching. Even teachers who try to not let their worldview impact the classroom, it still "comes out" sometime in the 180 days that they are with their students.
I have seen this matter approached from both extremes. I've seen a biology teacher browbeat a fellow student because of his Christian beliefs and I have seen students brought to tears by their teacher. On the other hand, I can remember my teachers who approached all topics, beliefs, and worldviews objectively without revealing their own worldview to the students. Personally, I will lean more towards not wearing my worldview on my sleeve. I tend to think that if my students want to know bad enough, they can ask me what I believe. I will not use my classroom as a "concentration camp" for beating my personal beliefs into my students. I did not like that in my high school experience and I cannot imagine that high schoolers have become any fonder of that sort of teaching in the past 3-4 years.
In my classroom, I want to create an environment where students have access to information to make their own descisions, which will be with some guidance. That guidance is to safeguard against definite falsehoods about history. For example, I do not want one of my students to decide that the world wars never really took place: it was all smoke and mirrors.
My philosophy is to give my students what they need to make educated descisions about their own worldview. It needs to be something that they can stand up for and defend, but I will respect that descision even if it conflicts with my worldview.
Re: KPetrick
You make important point when you mention that:"there is a time for sharing/revealing but there is also a time when a teacher needs to step back and not use the classroom setting as a soapbox for what they believe." I caution though that this is much harder when you really care about the content, and particularly difficult when you feel that the content is especially relevant to the present. Perhaps the proper thing to do is to tell your inquiring students who you "voted for" not who you "will vote for." You don't want to stifle any kind of important discussions that could take place. After the fact, your disclosure might offer a chance for you to discuss exactly why you voted for who you did which will demonstrate how an informed citizen makes that choice.
Re: Melissa,
My stomach hurts just thinking about that poor kid in your bio class. I presume the incident had to do with creation/evolution. If that's the case I'm wondering how it turned into an argument. It seems likely to me that the teacher was unnecessarily using science to condemn religion while the student may have been unnecessarily interjecting religious views in science class. See Stephen Jay Gould's Rocks of Ages for a discussion of the principle of NOMA, which is that each discipline has its own rules and that it is inappropriate to apply scientific rules to religion and religious rules to science. Nevertheless, there is never a need for a student to be brought to tears by a teacher. There's always a better way to deal with things - perhaps in private.
It is inevitable that a teacher's worldview will effect a lesson. However, i think it is the duty of the teacher to make sure that their own worldview is not the only worldview students receive. Other perspectives should be presented with an attempt at objectivity. Present students with the options open to them and allow them to decide. It is not up to the teacher to decide for the student.
I love the idea of being a devils advocate to students, even if they may already be aware of why my specific position is. The best way for the students to learn and make decisions is to be challenged in their own beliefs. They are in the process of developing an identity and good questions can help them make conclusions about the way they want to look at the world. My hope is that i won't allow students to foreclose upon their parents views or the views they have always just had.
I hope that i can establish a classroom with thoughtful students confident in what they believe in and what they don't believe in. This will hopefully not include students pandering towards me with their statements and worldview decision in order to get a good grade. I would like to think that can be avoided by refraining from making a given worldview seem to be the one they should have.
It is difficult to say the extent that a social studies teacher should incorporate there worldview into teaching, and often it is difficult for teachers to separate their views from what they teach. The bias that a teacher has is difficult to separate from the curriculum, but it should be a goal, because in the end it is important for children to learn the unbiased view of history. That statement in itself lends itself to another problem of how to obtain a view of history that is unbiased. As a teacher it is important to understand/find sources that can explain the biased views and that give a wide range of views so the information is presented in its most pure form. In molding my own philosophy of social studies education i find myself wanting to make sure that my students understand the various views that are out their, and that people's views are not necessarily right or wrong. A teacher must be able to provide both sides of an argument if the sides exist, and not just focus on information that supports their particular bias towards the subject.
I agree with a lot of what has always been said. I think it would be great if you were able to share some of your personal views with students, yet present a variety of different views throughout your lessons.
As a side note, I one of my favorite history teachers from high school did a great job at playing devils advocate as well. While in her class I thought I knew her personal views, but I could never tell for sure. After being in her class she later told me that she chooses what text book she uses based on the demographics of the school district. For example, since my school distric and county was primarily conservative, she used a liberal text. And in the past, she had done the opposite in more liberal areas. I'm not totally sure of what I think about this idea, but it is interesting.
Hey! I've joined the 21st century! I also finally got the new version of the Spring text and have been enjoying it. I also enjoyed reading this discussion, it makes me reflect both on the social studies teachers I've had and also on my own teaching style. I have the impression that most social studies/history teachers end up being somewhat transparent, even if they try not to be. And I also suspect that for the most part the students enjoy that on some level. Both from my own memory and from the experience of my own kids, I know that 7-12 students really thrive on classroom political discussions/arguments. I've VERY rarely had a teacher who truly could effectively play the devil's advocate on both sides of an issue so effectively that it was impossible to determine on which side he/she stood. I think there is a very narrow tight rope that we need to walk as history teachers between challenging, informing, even agitating in ways that help our students to form their own worldview, and trying to manipulate it according to our own agenda. In my own experience as a teacher, I feel as if I pick up that the class, or an individual is only viewing an issue from one side, that I always want to try to get them to look at it from the other. Now as it happens I tend to be fairly liberal (at least by Houghton/Allegany Co. standards) and so I'm typically challenging a more conservative group to consider the other side of the issue. It would be interesting to see if I would play the same role talking to a highly liberal group. Would I feel the same imperative to acquaint them with the conservative argument? I actually suspect that I would since so much of my background is in the evangelical subculture. I can voice that argument fairly effectively, even if I don't fully ascribe to it. So much of history and learning is the nuances, the perspective. I believe our students need to hone their skills at considering multiple sides of complex issues, especially since developmentally they are often so dualistic in their thinking.
Re: Kaity
My history teacher was also very good at playing devil's advocate. He always supported and argued against every side that he presented. I can remember sitting with some of my friends at lunch trying to figure out what his personal beliefs were and we couldn't. Every once in a while someone would just outright ask him what he believed. He would just shake his head and say "well I could be this..but then again, this side has a good argument" and launch into a discussion. Your teacher's class sounds really interesting and it is a neat idea to choose the textbook based on demographics.
This is a question that every teacher is faced with. Personally, I have not quite figured out the answer to this, because I have mixed feelings on the issue.
In high school, my 11th grade U.S. History teacher did not reveal any of her personal political preferences or worldview to the class. You would think that spending so much time with a teacher you would eventually just figure it out, but our class truly never could. I think this was helpful, but also hurtful to the class. We would rarely launch into any political discussions in class because our teacher seemed to have a hard time opening up to us in that way.
On the other hand, I almost liked the fact that she did not tell us her views because it was always a mystery as to what her opinion was. Therefore, I felt that the students could figure out their opinions on their own, instead of just accepting what their favorite teacher believes. Middle and high school students are at such a vulnerable age in which they can be very easy to persuade.
I think that the right balance in this is to present facts from both sides, and create a comfortable atmosphere in which students are not afraid to share their opinions.
In my classroom I hope to foster this environment and share a bit of my opinion, but be sure to present the other side as well. Like Jesse said, I do not want students to go through life just accepting whatever view their parents hold, because often times those students don't even understand why they believe what they do.
I also like what Kim said about finding a time and place to share personal opinions and worldviews. Sharing personal opinions does help students feel respected and trusted, and I think it is important to build that type of relationship with your students.
As a social studies teacher I am more likely than not to be well read on current event issues and to have formulated opinions on them. These opinions will hopefully be the result of careful consideration and research, and I want to teach my students to follow the same processes. I do not want students to change their views to suit me, nor believe that their grade is dependent on their agreement with my positions. I want to offer a variety of sources for my class to follow, many of them primary, in order to allow students the opportunity to formulate their own beliefs. I also plan to encourage discussion in my class, with myself moderating, to also allow student feedback and the students to teach and learn from each other. I plan to only restrict student speech if it is hurtful or dangerous, and instead to always strive to encourage students to find their own beliefs. I believe that an enlightened citizenry is the only hope for democracy.
The greatest teacher that I have ever had was an outright liberal in his personal life, but you could never tell from his classes or instruction. He could just as easily and giftedly present the writings of Ted Kennedy or James Dobson and I hope to be able to do the same.
Re: Ashley
I think it is definitely helpful if a teacher keeps their political opinions to themselves, but not if that prevents them from discussing politics at all. Many of my teachers were afraid to discuss the Iraq war in class because it might stir up bad feelings or it deviated from the curriculum. I really believe current events and politics are an important part of the history curriculum, but they must be presented from all sides at the same time.
Re: Tim
I think it is very hard as a history teacher to not have your political beliefs enter the classroom at all, no matter how much we might strive not to. I also believe that I might find it hard at times to reach out and present issues from the other side of the aisle, especially if I really disagreed with their positions. I hope however that as I learn more about opposing sides to my own political beliefs I will see some facets that I like, and grow both as a person and as a teacher. I look forward to the challenge of stretching myself to include others viewpoints in my teaching.
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