Margaret Crocco

• PhD
• Retired at Retired

This article calls for greater attention to the role of emotion and affect in classroom discussions where theoretical models of discussion and deliberation tend to emphasize the rationalistic elements called for in such pedagogical strategies. Using two examples drawn from secondary classrooms, the authors highlight the role of emotion and affect i...

The author responds to several themes that emerge across the articles in the special issue, considering them in light of contexts of schooling, teacher education, and the contemporary historical moment in the United States. The articles raise salient concerns about what the reform movements of the last twenty or so years have meant for scholars, pr...

This study examines high school students' responses to a public policy discussion on the topic of Internet privacy. Specifically, students discussed the question of whether search engines and social media sites should be permitted to monitor, track, and share users’ personal data or whether such practices violate personal privacy. We observed discu...

This paper addresses whether, how, and to what extent social studies student teachers who have been introduced to inquiry-oriented teaching (as manifest in the National Council for the Social Studies C3 Framework) in their secondary social studies methods course incorporate this approach into the planning for their practicum experience. Based on an...

Using auto-ethnography, I explore the ways in which a recent experience in teaching a graduate-level Women's Studies course and the rise of the #MeToo era has precipitated reflection on the status of gender within social studies. I included recommendations for infusing more attention to gender in the teaching of social studies across K-20 levels.

This article is a pedagogical case study reflecting on the Teaching The Levees curriculum (Crocco, 2007) written in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and in tandem with the Spike Lee film, When the Levees Broke (2006). Over 30,000 copies of the curriculum, underwritten by the Rockefeller Foundation, were distributed widely throughout and beyond th...

Inclusion of gender and sexuality in history education, that is, teaching the discipline of history within K-12 schools, has not kept pace with the inclusion of these topics in academic history (college-level) research and teaching. Reasons for this disjuncture have to do with the conservative nature of school curricula, which continue to emphasize...

This mixed-methods study analyzed adolescents’ evaluation of the trustworthiness of different kinds of evidence and their reasons for why they trusted (or did not trust) them. Specifically, we analyzed adolescents’ rankings of seven kinds of evidence in the abstract and in the context of a settled historical event (school desegregation) and whether...

Today’s youth increasingly are being expected to engage in civil deliberation in classrooms while simultaneously living in a society with a high level of political incivility. However, teaching students to argue — particularly in oral form — is enormously complex and challenging work. In this article, the authors report on a study of four high scho...

In this age of real and fake news, students need to be able to assess the trustworthiness of evidence. The authors’ current research examines students’ use of evidence in secondary social studies classrooms as students deliberate contemporary public policy issues. The authors found that students shifted their evaluations of the trustworthiness of e...

This chapter calls for a systematic research agenda on social studies teacher education that would bring the field's research into alignment with that done in other school subjects, in particular, science and math, where there has been greater attention to policy trends, organizational contexts, and effective teaching practices as shaping factors f...

Systems thinking provides a powerful cognitive and pedagogical tool for considering problems related to sustainability. This chapter pays particular attention to critical conceptual aspects of systems thinking as manifest in the use of a curriculum guide addressing Hurricane Katrina called Teaching the Levees: A Curriculum for Democratic Dialogue a...

M. Crocco, A. Segall, R. Jacobsen, A. Halvorsen, et al.. "Facilitating Evidence-Based Discussions in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms" National Council of Social Studies College and University Faculty Assembly (2016) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/amanda-frasier/10/

Both the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards and the Common Core State Standards in ELA/Literacy emphasize the importance of making reasoned arguments supported by evidence. Administrators play a critical role in supporting the effective teaching of argumentation. However, limited knowledge exists concerning...

Media Literacy and the Fog of War (2009)

The educational reform movement in social studies has focused on constructivist and inquiry-oriented approaches to the teaching of history. Since many social studies teacher education students have had little experience with such approaches in their own schooling, special attention needs to be given to these topics within teacher preparation progra...

Heightened accountability measures associated with state and federal policies regarding teaching and teacher education have produced a sense of a field under siege. Privatization efforts and corporate philanthropy work hand-in-glove with governmental agencies to reshape the landscape of educational power and authority by disrupting traditional form...

: This paper reports two years’ research into the effects of computer use on thinking about teaching social studies subject matter among a small sample of pre-service students. Through extensive modeling by teacher educators of the use of computers in teaching social studies and courses requiring project-based learning with computers, teacher educa...

This paper examines two cases of educational reform (early 20th century and early 21st century) and the gendered nature of reform during these eras, with special attention to the topic of reform via ed-tech in the contemporary period.

Pizza serves as a powerful example of historical themes such as immigration, cultural exchange and urbanization. In the post-WWII United States, Trenton, NJ, and other cities were gradually being transformed by suburbanization, the rise of fast food, and changes in family living related to women's entry in large numbers into the paid workforce. Thi...

Systems thinking provides a powerful cognitive and pedagogical tool for considering problems related to sustainability. This chapter pays particular attention to critical conceptual aspects of systems thinking as manifest in the use of a curriculum guide addressing Hurricane Katrina called Teaching the Levees: A Curriculum for Democratic Dialogue a...

A friend once told me that the connotation of “educationist” was derisive. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, the denotation of the term is as follows: “one who specializes in educational theory and practice.” The term is more commonly used in Great Britain and, as such, has been associated with colonialism, which may explain its neg...

Using the framework of four critical global education competencies, this chapter considers the possibilities in curriculum and pedagogy for social studies to engage the concept of sustainability. Although it is acknowledged at the outset that social studies have just begun to engage with this concept, suggestions are offered for further development...

This article provides a methodology that teachers can use to incorporate themes and ideas related to local history in their classrooms. Using the city of New Brunswick, New Jersey as a case study, the article offers different approaches that allow local history to be connected to wider themes in American history. The focus here on a small, relative...

This study of all fifty state, high school social studies curriculum standards found a lack of attention in the vast majority of state standards to the federal budget, federal debt, and budget deficit, topics of significant concern. These concepts are important to teaching about economics in the United States since they lie at the center of contemp...

The authors examine how representations of the Vietnam War in documentary film offer teachers unique opportunities to use visual media sources to teach a difficult moment in United States history. They discuss the use of documentary films and television, as well as Internet-based platforms such as YouTube. They argue that new media that serve as re...

In an attempt to address perceived shortcomings in traditional content-area literacy preparation, an interdisciplinary group of teacher education faculty developed an approach called “content-driven literacy” (CDL), which was applied to the design of courses to prepare preservice secondary science and social studies teachers. This article describes...

The issues surrounding the federal budget, national debt, and budget deficit are complex, but not beyond the reach of young students. This study finds scant treatment of the federal budget, national debt, and budget deficit in high schools today. It is hardly surprising that high school teachers spend so little time discussing these topics in their...

This paper deals with two types of educational reform related to teaching and learning the traditional school subject of social studies. First, we consider the importance of teaching about controversial issues by examining the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the record-setting, natural disaster, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in late...

In the three decades following World War II (1946-1970), robust economic gains were shared widely, with the incomes of the bottom 90 percent actually increasing more rapidly, on average, than the incomes of the top 1 percent. But in the three decades since 1976, the incomes of the bottom 90 percent of households have risen only slightly, on average...

This article addresses the subject of teaching about women in world history in K–12 schools and in programs of social studies teacher education. It includes a review of the place of gender in teaching about world history to current and future teachers at Teachers College, Columbia University. This informal research serves as the platform for a set...

Two collaborating urban university educators document their evolving understanding of the ways in which technology, gender and social studies intersect to challenge traditional assumptions in teacher education. The "male" culture of computing, notoriously unfriendly to girls in schools, is part of a well-documented digital gender gap. Though teache...

The authors offer a brief introduction to the history of women of the Middle East, with a focus on three major religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Schools are paying increased attention to teaching world history, but they are giving too little attention to incorporating women as part of world history. One of the major dividing lines withi...

Over the last four decades, women’s history has developed from a new and marginal approach to history to an established and flourishing area of the discipline taught in all history departments. Clio in the Classroom makes accessible the content, key themes and concepts, and pedagogical techniques of U.S. women’s history for all secondary school and...

Over the last four decades, women’s history has developed from a new and marginal approach to history to an established and flourishing area of the discipline taught in all history departments. Clio in the Classroom makes accessible the content, key themes and concepts, and pedagogical techniques of U.S. women’s history for all secondary school and...

Purpose – Focusing on gender as an aspect of diversity, the purpose of this paper is to review social studies research on technology, and suggest a new direction, with gender redefined from a gap to be eliminated to a difference to be explored. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a literature review of research on gender, technology, and so...

This article discusses a curriculum created by a group from Teachers College, Columbia University in response to the film When the Levees Broke about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Specifically, the article addresses how the controversial issues related to that event were handled in the structure, content, and approach taken in the curriculum...

Alice Ginsberg’s invitation to write this chapter presented authors with a number of questions to which they were asked to respond. I have chosen to take an autobiographical approach to her request since personal experiences, rather than formal academic training, brought me into women’s studies, changed my thinking about “how we know what we know,”...

Under the curricular and pedagogical impositions of scripted lessons and mandated curriculum, patterns associated nationwide with high-stakes testing, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and the phenomenon known as the “narrowing of curriculum,” new teachers in New York City (NYC) find their personal and professional identity thwarted, creativity...

The author considers the treatment of women's rights as human rights in the social studies curriculum. She discusses the role of the United Nations in promoting women's rights since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. She also reviews the treatment of women's rights within social studies curriculum today through a rev...

Whether it be my religion, my aesthetic taste, my economic opportunity, my educational desire, whatever the craving is, I find a limitation because I suffer from the greatest known handicap, a Negro — a Negro woman. (Mary McLeod Bethune, “Closed Doors,” 1936).

The contemporary social studies curriculum remains surprisingly far from gender balanced. Women in the social studies are placed marginally--except for the large number of teachers and teacher educators who happen to be women. Teachers motivated to include women in global education or world history courses confront numerous problems, including lack...

High-stakes testing in New York City (NYC) schools has produced a culture of high-stakes teaching. The latter concept emphasizes both the importance of good teachers to the performance of urban students and the threat to keeping good teachers in NYC schools due to measures such as scripted lessons and mandated curriculum. This essay draws upon inte...

In addressing the topic of gender and social education for the third edition of this book, I may encounter some readers who wonder: "What's the problem? Women have made enormous gains over the last forty years in American society." And, indeed, this is true: Using just one measure of women's educational achievement, college attendance, as an exampl...

This paper discusses inclusion of global literature in social studies curricula, especially in teaching about women of the world. It analyses the attraction of, and difficulties with, a popular work of young adult fiction, Shabanu, often taught in US middle‐school social studies and humanities classrooms. It uses the framework of post‐colonial, fem...

This paper addresses the question of how diversity has been dealt with in the 20th century since the formal inauguration of social studies as part of the U.S. public school curriculum. Given space constraints, the many historical reasons for change in the treatment of diversity is outlined in the paper in broad terms. Likewise, the larger subject o...

This book documents the "brave new world" of teacher, administrator, school, and student accountability that has swept across the United States in recent years. Its particular vantage point is the perspective of dozens of new teachers trying to make their way through their first months and years working in schools in the New York City metropolitan...

Reporting on a PT[superscript 3] grant-funded technology initiative involving social studies preservice students at Teachers College, Columbia University, this article seeks to illumine the many-faceted "digital divide." Data collected between 2000 and 2003 from preservice students and first-year alumni teaching in metropolitan New York City school...

This article describes a professional development school (PDS) relationship between Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Beacon School in New York City. In examining this case of an urban high school with a diverse student population working with a college of education, the authors add to the literature on PDS partnerships, which has deal...

Findings are presented from research in a teacher education course on diversity and the social studies that takes gender and sexuality as subject matter. Five themes emerge from five years of qualitative data related to teaching the course and following the experiences of graduates attempting to apply their learning to new teaching situations. The...

Examines what shapes current practices in secondary-level social-studies classrooms in New York City, especially in those institutions characterized as "restructured." An important influence on social-studies curriculum and teaching has to do with the differences between traditional and restructured secondary schools. Study seeks answers to several...

This article examines the place of women of the world in the implicit and explicit social studies curriculum of the schools. The authors establish a postcolonial feminist framework for dealing with this topic and draw on evidence from personal testimonies of immigrant and native women, the treatment of women of the “third world” by mainstream media...

Sets out the current situation for New York City teachers who must deal with increasing numbers of immigrant students. Describes how adapting teacher education to new classroom contexts is being carried out in the Program in Social Studies at Teachers College of Columbia University. Includes a list of related teacher resources. (DSK)

Maintains that although women's history has made great strides in the university environment, it remains peripheral in elementary and secondary education. Suggests feasible strategies to incorporate this subject into the curriculum. Includes Peggy McIntosh's "Five Phases of Curricular Re-Vision with Regards to Gender 1983." (MJP)

This article examines the contributions of Mary Ritter Beard and Marion Thompson Wright to inclusive curriculum in social education. Beard established the field of women's history through her writing and public addresses. Wright promoted the application of Black history in the schools through her work as a teacher educator and scholar with the Asso...

From the vantage point of 1995, this article takes up the question of what changes occurred as a result of women gaining the right to vote in the US in 1920. On the occasion of the centennial anniversary of women's voting in the US, teachers and teacher educators may find utility in examining what was known, circa mid-nineties, about these changes,...

Provides a chronological overview of the struggle for women's suffrage in the United States. Describes the role of individual women and women's organizations in the struggle. Includes primary sources, teacher resources, and a political cartoon. (CFR)

Schools and "helping agencies" are jointly defining deviant behavior.

This paper, which won a best paper award at the 2004 annual conference of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education, is a report of findings related to the introduction of technology in a course, entitled Women of the World, in a master's degree program in the teaching of social studies. Recent academic research and journalistic...

This paper deals with two types of educational reform related to teaching and learning the traditional school subject of social studies. First, we consider the importance of teaching about controversial issues by examining the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the record-setting, natural disaster, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in late...