Women, Webquests, and Controversial Issues in the Social Studies.

Abstract

AMERICA HAS BEEN CALLED argument culture, but you wouldn't know it from many social studies classrooms. (1) Despite a longstanding tradition in social studies of teaching controversial issues, all too few of today's classrooms accommodate this kind of intellectual activity. (2) Perhaps it's the pressure of high stakes testing, or the emphasis on teaching history--often done in a transmission, or didactic mode--or a reluctance to bring up polarizing topics in the currently politicized school climate. Whatever the reason, young people today may graduate from high school having had little chance to debate or otherwise discuss contemporary controversial issues. (3) This is a missed opportunity on more than one account. Research has shown such academic endeavors to be highly motivating for adolescents in making judgments and forming their own opinions about adult topics. (4) Studies have also demonstrated the importance of open-ended inquiry for deepening understanding of subject matter. (5) Experts in teaching and learning frequently group approaches based on inquiry, debate, and engagement with challenging issues under the umbrella term constructivism, a word that teachers associate with student-centered curricula and classroom activities. (6) The spread of digital technology in schools over the last two decades has brought attention to its potential for supporting constructivist or student-centered pedagogy. Though there are many reasons to consider integrating technology into social studies classrooms, one of the strongest is that it can be a way to leverage powerful forms of learning. (7) In our work at Teachers College, Columbia University, we have tested this idea in Crocco's course of the World: Issues in Teaching, a preservice elective in global studies focused on gender which often deals with controversial subject matter. We have looked for technology tools to help students engage deeply with gender issues in a global context. We have also made an effort to evaluate both the tools and our use of them in preparing future teachers to include material on women and gender in the social studies curriculum. Here we consider WebQuests, included in the Women of the World course since 2002. Our experience has shown us that WebQuests are well suited to teaching controversial issues, particularly contemporary controversial issues, for which data and other timely resources are likely to be published on the internet. However, we have also seen that when the controversial issue around which a WebQuest is to be created is gender, there are certain considerations a teacher must take into account--an insight which, in turn, has led us to cast a critical eye at web-based resources for teaching about women of the world. This is, perhaps, another way of saying that our own quest for understanding, in which we asked--What are the affordances and constraints of the WebQuest form for teaching about women, or gender, or controversial issues generally in a global context?--has, like most inquiry-based activities, raised some very interesting new questions. (8) These we address at the end of the essay, where we provide a set of guidelines for educators interested in adapting the WebQuest to social studies teaching about women's controversial issues. Gender Equity, Technology, and Teacher Education In previous writing, we have promoted infusing technology into social studies teacher education by using it with subject matter relevant to women's lives. (9) One obvious rationale for doing this is that most of our students--like most preservice students and most school teachers throughout the country--are women. It is important to note, of course, that teaching about women involves teaching about men. Since gender roles are closely linked, change in one generally means change in the other. No one should feel left out in these learning experiences when the focus shifts from men to women in the social studies classroom. …