Chapter 16: “Dinosaurs in the Hood?”: Introducing Intersectionality in the Social Studies Classroom

In a recent blog post “Teaching in the Trump Years”, educational historian Larry Cuban commented on the difficulties faced by classroom teachers given our current political climate. His post links to stories relating the numerous issues teachers have faced post-election, including Latino kindergartners asking if the wall had been built yet, and the firing of a school principal who allowed students to air their concerns about President Trump (Cuban, 2017). Other stories included those of students who had been bullied due to their identities such as immigrant students who have been met with calls of “Trump! Trump!” and “Build a wall” at sporting events (Kuang, 2016). Of course this is not the first time social studies teachers have found themselves struggling to deal with contentious issues in the classroom and researchers have identified effective practices for teaching students to engage with controversial issues (Beck, 2013; Hess 2002, Hess 2008). Given the historically contentious nature of social studies (Evans, 2007; Tyack & Cuban, 1995) and the current chilling effect on teachers described by Cuban, it can be difficult for pre-service Social Studies teachers to embrace dealing with controversial issues. This would include topics related to student identities outside of white, middle class, hetero-normative experience such as LGBTQ history or immigration history in the mid-to-late 20th.