Knowledge working with teachers in the US Midwest: exploring racial literacy in social studies teaching

This paper draws on an 18-month research project funded by a Spencer Foundation racial equity grant entitled Racial Literacy, Capabilities and Curriculum Making (RaLiCaM). Its’ purpose was to articulate principles underpinning racially literate knowledge work required for improving the teaching of high school geography, history, and civics. It adopted a capabilities perspective, recognising that teachers can enhance their agency when working with appropriate frameworks and concepts that inform what and how they teach. Using a collaborative, design-based methodology, teachers and researchers developed two ‘living documents’ on racial literacy and curriculum making. These were designed to capture teachers’ work and disciplinary ideas (including from race scholarship), which were often new and unsettling to teachers. Concurrently, the teachers produced 29 ‘curriculum vignettes’ as a means to make visible their knowledge work and curriculum making. This article outlines the conceptual resources, design principles, and methodology used to support the teachers as they strove for more critically racially literate social studies teaching. Initial findings include a regard for truthfulness in helping teachers navigate decisions in politically hostile times. The project offers a conceptual framework for working with educators to reimagine their teaching and models the type of knowledge work needed in initial teacher preparation.