Social Studies instruction and student preparation for democratic participation

The Social Studies instruction that I observed was in a high school setting with students of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds. The demographic of the class consisted of 12 students, 5 female, 7 male; 3 African-American, 1 Asian-American, 1 Hispanic-American, and 1 foreign exchange student from Germany, as well as 6 Caucasian Americans. The overall demographic of the school is about 75% Caucasian American, 15% African-American, 5% Hispanic-American, and 5% other. There is about a 50-50 mix of males and females in the student body. The teachers are mostly female, with only about 30% of the faculty being male. Less than 5% of the faculty is African-American. There is 1 Hispanic teacher. The school’s faculty is thus not very reflective of the study body in terms of ethnic background.

The Social Studies instruction I observed helped to prepare students for participation in a democratic society by focusing on the recent Occupy Wall Street Movement, what prompted it, how it developed, what the aims for the Movement were, how it impacted the political arena, what effects it had, and what happened to the Movement in the end. The aim of the lesson was to show the studies that they could exercise their civic duty in a variety of different ways, from helping to form a new political party to engaging in civil disobedience, which is an American tradition that flows from Henry David Thoreau through Martin Luther King, Jr., all the way to us today.

The instruction was responsive to students’ varied social and cultural traditions to some extent, including their backgrounds and the overall diversity of the class. For instance, the instructor touched upon Thoreau and King as well as how other individuals—such as Gandhi in the East—used civil disobedience to effect change in their societies. So there was a little bit of something for everyone in the classroom. The instructor was careful to connect the ideas of civic duty, protest and political formation to a variety of ethnicities and people of diverse background. Thoreau was a Caucasian American. King was an African-American, Gandhi was from India, and the instructor also discussed how the Hispanic community in L.A. during the 1950s conducted their own Movement in order to obtain civil rights from an oppressive police department that had beaten many Hispanics in an event that was known as “Bloody Christmas.” The instructor aimed to show that any time people in a democratic society were being oppressed, they could move to stand up for their rights. By showing ways throughout history that people of diverse backgrounds had come together to oppose oppression and tyranny, the instructor illustrated that these ideas are for everyone and are not monopolized by any one group of people or individuals of a specific ethnic or cultural background.

In conclusion, what it means to me personally to be a professional educator, who is both ethical and fair, is that one should make sure to identify the needs and background of one’s classroom. It means understanding the demographic and seeing how to appeal to students of different ethnicities and cultures. Students may share some characteristics in terms of culture and background, but they are also likely to differ in many ways. It may be hard to bring so many different cultural angles into a single lesson, especially if a class is particularly diverse (for example, the instructor did not bring in any European movements to support the lesson); however, if an educator is really prepared, the approach to learning can be fair and ethical by representing all ethnicities in class.