Chapter 10: Putting Mrs. Rosa Parks Front and Center of an Elementary Methods Course

This chapter reports on the results of revising my elementary methods course to focus on Rosa Parks with an aim to re-inscribe the historically controversial nature of her work that had been lost in its adaptation to a progress narrative. Here, I describe the course design and utilize student assignments to evaluate my success in providing grounds on which teacher candidates felt empowered to challenge the narrative they had learned as children. However, this approach was less successful in helping them revise their interpretation of present-day circumstances. While teacher candidates were receptive to the idea of putting social justice at the heart of the idea of citizenship, they struggled to translate new definitions for pedagogical use. Implications are raised for teacher education as regards the need to set appropriate learning goals, contrasted with the short amount of time allocated to preparing elementary teachers for powerful and relevant social studies instruction.