Empowering Teacher Candidates to Create Social Justice Curriculum Through Civic Engagement Projects

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine how participating in a Civic Engagement Project (CEP) led teacher candidates (TCs) to develop and publish race and social justice curriculum. This article describes the CEP, a graduate level social studies methods course assignment for TCs who research community issues, select a class project, collaborate, create and publish resources for educators. This mixed-methods study examines the challenges, benefits and process of the CEP. TCs' reflections, digital curriculum and resourcesthey created, surveys and interviews with TCs after graduation were analyzed through six criteria of anti-racist curriculum, based on Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Critical Race Theory. The intent of this longitudinal research is to analyze the long-term development of social studies teachers across their experiences with civic engagement as pre-service and subsequently in-service teachers.