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Power to the People: Using Primary Resources to Teach Social Studies Methods to Pre-Service Teachers

By Karon LeCompte

"Power to the People," a slogan heard as a

political rallying cry, epitomizes the idea of citizenship.

Citizenship, with its complexities of rights and

responsibilities, has and continues to be central in

American democracy. Citizenship is the power of

people to be full and equal members of our political

community. In some sense, citizenship is an office of

government. It could even be said that it is the highest

office of government because citizens are the source of

government's authority.' The National Council for the

Social Studies believes that a primary goal of public

education is to prepare students to be effective and

engaged citizens.

Today, most American children know the history

of African Americans such as Harriet Tubman, Rosa

Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr., people who believed

in equality for African Americans and were willing to die

for their convictions. Students understand that citizenship

for African Americans was a quest, a hard-fought battle

that lasted centuries. However, leaming the complexities

of this quest is a crucial part of the preparation of young

students as future citizens. Students must develop an

understanding of the development of black citizenship in

ways that allow them to practice historical analysis and

interpretation. This kind of historical thitiking allows

students to analyze group and institutional influences on

people, events, and elements of culture in both historical

and contemporary settings.^ Analysis of the development

of black citizenship instills in students the propensity to

keep the power with the people.

History is the study of the past, or the product of

our attempts to understand the nature of change over time.

The traditions of historical scholarship have a long and

complicated past, extending to Greek and Roman culture,

the Judeo-Christian tradition, and Islamic civilization.

National history, a prevalent practice in the nineteenth

century, has given way to a "new cultural history."^ The

dominant mode for historians today is considerably less

celebratory, more reflective, and more revisionist than

it was a century ago. Today's historians corroborate

evidence for supporting an argument. Historical research

is a process of taking bits and pieces of primary/

original sources (e.g., unpublished documents, maps,

photographs, etc.) from wherever one may find them. A

historian takes evidence, compiles it, and interprets it to

solve some historical question. Interpreting facts based

on evidence for whatever phenomena occurred in the

past is the focus of historians. Historians amass evidence.

History is not a social science; however, there are many

similarities between social science and historiography

(e.g., both place emphasis on individual interpretation

and reflection).

The basis of history is the assembled evidence.

Where there are no records, there is no history. The

development of citizenship for African Americans does

have a legacy of documents: personal journals, letters,

court decisions, and photographs all hold the promise

of investigation for students. Moreover, historical

documents hold the promise of understanding African

Americans' quest for equality. A good example of a

primary document that engages learners in historical

thinking is the Constitution of the United States. The

Constitution was created through a series of compromises

that reflected the desire of the slave states to maintain

their "peculiar institution." The 1787 Constitution

maintained the ideals of liberty and representative

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government; it also recognized and protected slavery.

Article I, section 2 states, "Representative and direct

taxes shall be apportioned among the several states

which may be included within this Union, according to

their respective numbers, which shall be determined by

adding to the whole number of free persons, including

those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding

Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons.""

African Americans recognized that these compromises

were significant obstacles in the struggle against slavery

and the quest for full, equal citizenship.

Citizenship education is socialization into the

community of the nation. Americans are people who

proclaim as a nation a belief in equality. Equality was

at the heart of human rights for African Americans who

lived from our antebellum period to modem times.

Appreciation of humanity and quality of life has been

and continues to be the heritage of those who fought

for citizenship for African Americans. Each of us has a

story about our own understanding of citizenship. Mine

is related to teachers and helping them understand the

importance of historical thinking and how students

develop as citizens.

I teach teachers. I touch the future by teaching

social studies methods to people who will be teachers in

elementary classrooms. The quest for black citizenship

provides opportunities for all students to leam the

importance of citizenship. I provide future teachers with

documents conceming the quest of black citizenship,

chances for critical analysis, and subsequent guidance

in creating learning for all students. At the heart of the

discussion exists equality. The legacy of equality for

humans in a political community is not a new theme

or an old one: it is an enduring tension that is inherent

in a democracy. Equality is a condition of democracy

that we must maintain through the students that we

teach. I have focused on conditions of democracy in my

work with teacher education candidates and continue

to reflect upon ways historical research can inform

our understanding of democratic practices. Effective,

engaging citizenship requires knowledge of the "power

of people" in a historical sense. Historical documents

reveal the struggle of African Americans for citizenship.

The narrative of this struggle is a lesson for our future

citizens, no matter what adversities they face.

Notes

' Center for Civic Education, We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, Level 2 (Calabasas, CA: Center for Civic Education, 2007), 264.

- Adapted from NCSS National Task Force for Social Studies Standards, National Standards for Social Studies Teachers (2002).

^ Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2001).

•* Robert P. Green, ed.. Equal Protection and the African American Experience: A Documentary History. (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 2000).

Karon LeCompte, Ph.D., eamed her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. LeCompte is an assistant clinical professor at Peabody College of VanderbiU University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in social studies education and courses in sociological aspects of education. E-mail: [email protected].

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