This paper presents the relationship between pedagogical content knowledge and political/ideological clarity as a framework for understanding the nuanced interpretations and applications of critical social studies pedagogy and practice. Using a qualitative case study research design, this study explores the decision-making process of two novice social studies teachers as they decide if and how to utilize critical historical inquiry within their classrooms. Findings indicate that teachers’ use of critical historical inquiry is informed by their subject area consciousness and political and (...) ideological clarity which is cultivated through personal, schooling, and communal experiences. However, we also find that a teacher's pedagogy is significantly strengthened when political and ideological clarity are coupled with pedagogical content knowledge to ensure a more developed enactment of critical historical inquiry is reached within the social studies classroom. (shrink)

Critical pedagogy is an optimistic approach for achieving transformative agency, which remains an elusive and vital aspect of civic education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the pedagogical approach of three critically identifying teachers. Specifically, this study was interested in understanding participant teacher critically civic ontological postures. The posture implies an understanding of the power inherent to civic relation and pedagogy. Participant teachers uniquely demonstrated postures that allowed them to address conceptual, personal, and material aspects of civics (...) education. Participants achieved this first by making clear temporal connections between citizenship and disciplines; second, by incorporating student experiences; and lastly by utilizing a range of instructional approaches to negate traditional civic archetypes. Findings suggest that critical civic ontological postures are dynamic, contextual, and disciplinarily situated. Authentically critically civic ontological postures include developing intellectual solidarity with students and those in educational communities. (shrink)

The article criticises various interpretations of Epicurus's claim that belief in determinism is self-invalidating: -/- - 'The man who says that all things come to pass by necessity cannot criticise one who denies that all things come to pass by necessity, for he admits that this too happens of necessity.' - -/- especially Ted Honderich's argument that the real force of the Epicurean claim is that if belief acquisition is causally necessitated, we will be excluded from possible facts and inquiries (...) that might have produced new knowledge and might have shown some of what we take to be knowledge to be false. Honderich's argument fails to consider that undetermined inquirers might fail to make discoveries that determined inquirers could not fail to make. Determinism would not, therefore, put us in a worse position as seekers of knowledge than indeterminism. (shrink)

In Davidson's example of causal deviancy, a climber knows that he can save himself from plummeting to his death by letting go of a rope connecting him to a companion who has lost his footing, but the thought of the contemplated act so upsets him that he lets go unintentionally. Causation of behavior by intentional states that rationalize it is not enough for it to count as acting. Therefore, the behavior must be caused in 'the right way' or by the (...) Right Kind of Cause. The immediate cause in Davidson's and other examples of causal immediacy is the agent's awareness or contemplation of what he or she is intending or thinking of doing, which is either caused by, or implicit in the agent's awareness of, his or her intentions or beliefs and desires. I argue that RKC can only be a mechanism-the Will-whose operation we are not directly aware of, but only indirectly once the action is underway. (shrink)

In this piece, the author examined the impact of ideology, experience, and privilege on pre-service Social Studies teacher disposition. Findings suggest that participants conceptually understood injustice and began to critique social antagonisms like whiteness and class. However, they continued reinforcing raced and classed ideologies in their interactions with those outside their group. When faced with the cognitive dissonance between stated ideology and their privileged position, the more liberal participants re-narrativize their political stances to adopt more critical ideological worldviews while maintaining (...) their privileged identities. More conservative participants disassociated themselves from more extreme aspects of U.S. conservative political ideology. Both groups maintained the ideologies that provided justification for social hierarchy. Upbringing/identity, understandings of power/hierarchy, emic cultural understandings, and a desire to live one’s ideology, or not, beyond the classroom, informed participant decition making. (shrink)

The argument between retributivists and consequentialists about what morally justifies the punishment of offenders is incoherent. If we were to discover that all of the contending justifications were mistaken, there is no realistic prospect that this would lead us to abandon legal punishment. Justification of words, beliefs and deeds, can only be intelligible on the assumption that if one's justification were found to be invalid and there were no alternative justification, one would be prepared to stop saying, believing or doing (...) what one has attempted to justify. Therefore, the moral standing or basis of our practices of punishing offenders can not rest on a justification of it. (shrink)

Civic engagement requires individuals to have both knowledge of democratic principles and the skills for enacting change. Acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary for a productive civic life can be difficult for students if they are not provided conceptual scaffolds and opportunities to practice citizenship. We implemented and studied an activity using Westheimer and Kahne's (2004) citizenship typology during a summer civics institute to help students grapple with their understandings of “good” citizenship. We found (1) students appropriated the language of (...) Westheimer and Kahne's citizenship typology by using it to describe their expanding understandings of citizenship; and (2) students used the citizenship typology to name and make sense of their civic identity. We discuss these findings and reflect on our use of Westheimer and Kahne's citizenship typology as a cognitive scaffold. (shrink)