Two-Column Notes

Date:
9/21/16

Name: Joseph Mysyk

Class/Subject: EDTL 2760 1001

MR Title(s): Beyond Personally Responsible research study

MR Source(s): Patterson, N., Misco, T., & Doppen, F. (2012). Beyond personally responsible: A study of teacher
conceptualizations of citizenship education. Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice, 7(2), 191-206.
Page #
192

The Text Says

83 of the 400 teachers surveyed agreed that
citizenship is either the most important or one of the
most important goals of the field

193

It is important of us to mine our beliefs about social

studies in order to realize the citizenship mission of
the social studies

195

Secondary teachers specialize in social studies

content to a greater degree than elementary teachers

I Say
This number should be a lot higher. Social Studies teachers
need to understand that teaching kids how to become
functioning citizens in the united states should be their top
priority. Teachers are focusing on things such as the
importance of other countries or the early history of our
country. While these are both things that are extremely
important they in no way teach kids how to become
functioning US citizens, which is the most important part of
social studies.
We cannot teach what we feel needs to be taught to
students. We need to teach what is essential to students for
then they can become functioning members of society. We
also need to keep our own personal political beliefs to
ourselves when teaching. We cannot teach students to be
biased to one political party and be against the other. We
need to give students the information and the tools for them
to make their own decisions.
Of course secondary teachers teach more elaborate and
complex things in social studies to their students because
they are older and more mature, but I think that elementary
school teachers need to teach kids more about how great it
is the be an American citizen. By teaching them what an

204

Modeled lessons that connect the critical questions of

history to citizens in the present

American is and how cool government can be then believe

that these kids when they get to high school will have more
of an interest in social studies and getting involved in
politics.
I agree with this. Having lessons that connect history to the
citizens of the present will keep citizens involved and make
it more relatable to them. Students who go to class and
listen to their teachers lecture them for an hour straight
about how they need to be citizens is boring to the student.
But by taking questions from history and making them
present will make the students be able to relate more and
have a better understanding of the topic.

Connections to previous MR:

This connects to the previous reading where in the last post I talked about how we need to get back to teaching kids about the way
America used to be run and how great it was. This relates to this article because it talks about what the teachers need to be
teaching their students on how to become members of the American society. By teachers doing both these things (teaching about
how great America was and how to become proper US citizens) our countrys government and economy will surely strengthen and
become the power house it used to be. I find the opinions of this study to be accurate in the sense that teachers are trying to relate
the information to present day, and they realize that they need to focus more on teaching kids how to be citizens. This is good
news because now that they realize what is happening we can slowly start to get on the right track.