Doing Race in Social Studies

Book excerpt: Race and racism are a foundational part of the global and American experience. With this idea in mind, our social studies classes should reflect this reality. Social studies educators often have difficulties teaching about race within the context of their classrooms due to a variety of institutional and personal factors. Doing Race in Social Studies: Critical Perspectives provides teachers at all levels with research in social studies and critical race theory (CRT) and specific content ideas for how to teach about race within their social studies classes. The chapters in this book serve to fill the gap between the theoretical and the practical, as well as help teachers come to a better understanding of how teaching social studies from a CRT perspective can be enacted. The chapters included in this volume are written by prominent scholars in the field of social studies and CRT. They represent an original melding of CRT concepts with considerations of enacted social studies pedagogy. This volume addresses a void in the social studies conversation about race—how to think and teach about race within the social science disciplines that comprise the social studies. Given the original nature of this work, Doing Race in Social Studies: Critical Perspectives is a much-needed addition to the conversation about race and social studies education.