UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Sarah B. Shear, assistant professor of social studies education at Penn State Altoona, will present "Hegemony (Un)bound: Representations of Indigenous Peoples in K-12 U.S. History Standards" from noon to 1 p.m. Sept. 17 in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. This event is free and open to the public, and is the first of a series of presentations on indigenous knowledge scheduled for this academic year. The event is co-sponsored by the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge and the Social Sciences Library. It can also be viewed online.
Shear's seminar will reveal the findings of a two-year, mixed methods study she and colleagues at the University of Missouri conducted to better understand how K-12 content standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia represent, and more often misrepresent, indigenous peoples in U.S. history. Both the quantitative and qualitative findings from this study seek to better inform not only the discourse of what we teach in our classrooms but also the discourse of how we prepare future teachers to teach social studies for social justice given current education policies.
Shear earned her doctorate at University of Missouri in 2014. Her research involves four areas: the representations of indigenous peoples in social studies curriculum; the experiences of indigenous and non-indigenous educators teaching social studies in indigenous communities; decolonizing and post-qualitative theory and methodology; and the preparation of pre-service teachers to engage teaching and learning for social justice.
If you anticipate needing accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, contact Helen Sheehy at 814-863-1347 or [email protected].