John P. Broome, assistant professor and program director of preK-12, middle and secondary education in the College of Education, co-presented his paper “Discussing Ferguson in the Social Studies Classroom” to the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference in New Orleans, La. During this conference, he also served as a paper session chair and an elected Delegate in the NCSS House of Delegates, the governing body of the national organization.
His survey research, co-authored with Dr. Jason Endacott from the University of Arkansas, explores how middle and high school teachers discussed the events in Ferguson, Mo. in their classrooms across the United States. Focus was placed on the active role of the agency of schools in student political socialization and attention was given to the methods of instruction, teacher decision-making and the barriers for those who chose not to or “could not” teach the topic.
This research extends to the spring 2016 America Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting in Washington, DC with a paper presentation entitled, “How Social Studies Teachers View the ‘Lessons’ of Ferguson.” This paper uses discourse analysis to analyze what teachers viewed as the “lessons” of the events in Ferguson.