Chapter 3: Preparing Social Studies Teachers for The Challenges and OPportunities Of Disciplinary Literacy Instruction In a Changing World:

Scholars, educators, and policymakers widely agree that disciplinary literacy is a necessary tool for young people inside and outside of school. However, teaching disciplinary literacy in social studies classes comes with many challenges. Among these are an unclear picture of literacy practices outside of history, the need to attend to several obstacles that an increasingly diverse student body faces in working with texts, and shifts within the disciplines themselves. Teacher educators must take up these challenges in order to improve K–12 disciplinary literacy. The purpose of this chapter is three-fold: to illuminate disciplinary literacy across the core social studies disciplines, outline some of the key challenges students and teachers face, and provide an overview of the pressing issues before the field of teacher education.