Bringing it all home: using local resources in teachers’ professional development
-
Elise Langan
and
Salika A. Lawrence
Abstract
Teachers need opportunities to explore the communities in which they teach to understand how the local contexts can be used to enhance the curriculum. Professional development that focuses on ways to integrate local primary sources into the social studies curriculum can help teachers plan authentic lessons for students to learn about their community. This qualitative study examined how nine social studies teachers who participated in a professional development program on place-based education made linkages between local and global events in their unit planning. Semi-structured interviews, field notes, and lesson plans were analyzed to learn how a professional development program impacted teachers’ practice. Findings indicate that most teachers were able to design and implement units that either explicitly or implicitly connected global events to local experiences. Results suggest that instructional shifts are required to help teachers design inquiry-based instruction to understand how to use local primary sources to open up spaces for students to ask questions about their communities.
Funding source: Teaching with Primary Sources
Funding source: Library of Congress
Award Identifier / Grant number: Unassigned
Acknowledgment
This research was funded by The Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Eastern Region program at Waynesburg University. The mission of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program is to build awareness of the Library’s educational initiatives; provide content that promotes the effective educational use of the Library’s resources; and offer access to and promote sustained use of the Library’s educational resources. The program was in coordination with the Gotham Center for New York History’s (CUNY) K-12 Education Program. We would like to thank Ms. Julie Maurer, the Gotham Center’s Education Director, for her considerable efforts on behalf of the project.
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