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Using History Departments to Train Secondary Social Studies Teachers: A Challenge for the Profession in the 21st Century
Donald Schwartz
California State University, Long Beach
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THE CRISIS IN EDUCATION has received major attention in the 2000 presidential race. Such concern is more than hyperbole, since student scores on standardized tests are unsatisfactory, and newly minted teachers have difficulty in passing basic and elementary examinations. These disturbing trends are particularly alarming in light of the fact that more than two and a half million teachers must be trained in the next decade to meet the demand created by retirements and expanded student enrollment. Universities have come under increasing pressure to improve teacher training programs while producing greater numbers of teaching candidates. This issue goes beyond the concerns of schools of education; the challenge of training effective teachers is a university-wide responsibility, one which should be shouldered by faculty in all academic disciplines. |
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At California State University, Long Beach I serve as coordinator of the social science credential program, but I am also a member of the history faculty. At a recent department meeting, discussion centered on a report concerning how poorly new teachers are trained, particularly in the area of subject matter mastery. One colleague from the history department turned to me, and in a rather baiting tone, asked me to explain why students in the social science credential program were so deficient in their knowledge and understanding of history. "I'm not sure," I responded, "but I do know that many of the students in the credential program have taken your U.S. history courses." |
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I do not bring up this unpleasant interchange to pass along responsibility for what many observers recognize as an increasing and disturbing problem concerning the preparation of new teachers. But I think the exchange focuses on the question of the degree to which history departments are, or should be, responsible for the training of secondary school social science teachers. The fact is that many history professors do not feel any connection, personally or academically, to K-12 education in general, or to the training of those who will teach on the pre-collegiate level. And there is some justification for that position. History department search committees do not consider teacher training as a criteria for hiring new faculty; teaching and research responsibilities of most history professors do not address the training of elementary or secondary school teachers; and decisions on retention, tenure, and promotion do not focus on a history professor's concern for the preparation of K-12 social studies teachers. Nevertheless, my purpose is to underscore the importance of history faculties taking responsibility for the training of those who teach history at all levels of education, not only those who seek positions at universities or community colleges. |
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year the American Council of Education released a study entitled,
To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers Are Taught.1
The paper, which represents the findings of a task force on teacher
education composed mostly of college and university presidents,
calls for a dramatic transformation in the way colleges and universities
educate teachers. The findings of the report highlight the following:
1) the quality of the teacher is the single most important factor
in improving student performance, more important than the socio-economic
background of the child, or the condition of the school, or the
size of the teacher-student ratio; and 2) a thorough grounding in
college-level subject matter is an essential ingredient for good
teaching. On this second point the task force cites an earlier study
which found that "effective teachers explain content to their students
from different perspectives, respond accurately to their questions,
plan lessons intelligently, qualify assertions appropriately, and
choose wisely what to include, exclude, and emphasize in the curriculum."2
That is what history professors hopefully do in their classrooms.
The report referred to a 1999 investigation which concluded that
"virtually all who have examined the education of prospective teachers
have stressed that more attention must be given to the education
provided by subject matter faculty."3
A review commissioned by the task force found that a primary characteristic
of a successful teacher training program occurs when an "arts and
science faculty and education faculty [has] developed an effective
way to combine their contributions."4
It recommended the tight articulation of subject matter and clinical
training, of practice and theory. |
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To paraphrase Lenin's query made almost a century ago, "what is to be done"? Can history faculty be made to recognize the importance of their efforts in improving the quality of prospective teachers? What specific roles can history professors play in teacher training? Is articulation with education departments feasible? These questions must be answered if the recommendations of the American Council on Education are to be taken seriously. While I have no definitive solutions, I can share with you what one history department is doing to address the problem. |
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California State University, Long Beach is one of the relatively few universities that place single subject credential programs in the academic disciplines rather than in the School of Education. The history faculty at CSULB is involved with the teacher training program in several important areas. When credential candidates are given their student teaching assignments, they are supervised by members of the history department rather than by faculty from education. The rationale for enlisting historians for supervision is that knowledge of subject matter is at least as important to effective teaching as pedagogy and that it is easier to prepare a history professor in clinical supervision than it is to familiarize an education professor with world or United States history. Consequently, history faculty so trained regularly visit secondary school classrooms to observe and evaluate the effectiveness of student teachers. They meet in post-observation conferences to give necessary feedback to teaching candidates, and to suggest ways of improving the lesson under discussion. |
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History faculty can contribute to the training of history teachers in other ways as well. Policy for the social science credential program at CSULB is determined by faculty from history, political science, geography, economics, and education. This committee reviews program requirements and considers ways to improve teacher training in social science. Members of the history department serve to assess pre-service students. Candidates must take a prescribed series of courses to insure subject matter mastery in the courses they will be credentialed to teach on the K-12 level. Those who fail to achieve required minimum grades must undergo an oral interview before a panel of faculty from history and other social sciences. Thus history professors play a decisive role in determining whether a student is adequately prepared in subject matter to accept a student teaching assignment. |
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The history department is involved in other aspects of teacher training. The department offers courses in world history and courses in United States and California history which infuse content with pedagogy. These are courses specifically designed for history majors who seek a social science credential, and they are taught by those members of the department who have had experience teaching on the secondary school level or who have supervised student teachers. These faculty are fully conversant with state standards and they model innovative and effective teaching styles such as group work, cooperative learning, and periodic assessments. |
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In addition to direct involvement in teacher training, history department faculty from junior college to university can support seasoned teachers as well as novices to the profession. History faculty members at CSULB have served as project directors and teachers in summer institutes for secondary school teachers. These programs, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, have brought teachers from throughout the nation to study topics such as "The Enlightenment Revisited," "Understanding Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union through History and Literature," and "Tradition and Change: East Central Europe in the 20th Century." Furthermore, the department has hosted statewide summer institutes for teachers such as those sponsored by the California History Project and by the Center for International Studies. Most recently, six members of the history department conducted a summer institute for teachers in Long Beach Unified schools which was sponsored by the National Faculty program. Such projects serve to introduce and reinforce issues and interpretations in history for school teachers who have little time to keep current with historical scholarship. Working with professional historians helps to rekindle the intellectual spark and academic fervor which may have dimmed over the years since these educators completed their college courses. |
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Another avenue through which CSULB history faculty serve teachers in the surrounding community is the Seamless Education Project.5 Since 1996, monthly meetings have been held to bring together teachers of history from kindergarten through graduate schools in the Long Beach area. At these sessions educators in elementary school, middle school, high school, community college and CSULB discuss shared experiences and common concerns related to the teaching of history/social science. Although participants teach history at different levels, these teachers realize they address the same audience of students--most of whom are of working class backgrounds, many with limited English proficiency, but are motivated to become the first in their families to attend college. Topics addressed at the monthly conclaves include how to motivate students in the study of history, how to integrate skills with content, and ways to utilize traditional and nontraditional means of subject matter assessment. The overriding goal of the Seamless Education Project is to improve history education at all grades, not just K-12. Indeed, Cal State history professors have come away from these meetings realizing that they have learned about instructional strategies familiar to school teachers but not necessarily to university faculty, such as cooperative learning and portfolio assessment. Some of my colleagues who have attended these meetings have successfully employed such approaches for their lower and upper division college courses. |
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It is not enough for history faculty to contribute to the development of new teachers. College and university chancellors, presidents, and deans must recognize, support, and honor those efforts. Working with pre-service and veteran K-12 teachers should be valued in considerations for retention, promotion, tenure and salary increases. If administrators fail to reward such services, then the recent missive of American Council of Education will have little impact on the college community. |
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More than two hundred years ago Thomas Jefferson cautioned that if a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. Jefferson's admonishment is no less critical today than it was in the early days of the Republic. The report by the American Council on Education concludes that "the opportunity to transform schools by improving the quality of new teachers has never been as great."6 I submit that this challenge must be addressed by educators at every level. I call on professors and teachers of history nationwide to play a vital role in this crucial mission. |
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Notes
1
American Council on Education, To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers are Taught--An Action Agenda for College and University Presidents (Washington D.C., 1999). Lee S. Shulman, "Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform," Harvard Education Review, 57 (1987): 1-22.
2
Rennert-Ariev and L. Valli, "Agreement and Disagreement Among Teacher Education Reform Documents," Paper presented at the annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, (Washington D.C., 1999).
3
D.P. Scannel, Models of Teacher Education, (Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1999).
4
"Seamless Education in Long Beach: University/College/School Collaboration," American Historical Association Perspectives, September, 1997, 21-25. "The Growth of Collaboration in History Education: Reports on Current Practices," Ibid., September, 1999, 31-36.
5
Scannel, Models of Teacher Education.
6
Ibid.
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