School Structures and Curricular Choices: The Social Studies Classroom in Religious and Secular Schools

Abstract This article is drawn from a set of qualitative interviews and observations with social studies teachers at three school sites, one public, one Catholic, and one Islamic, in a major metropolitan area of the United States, as they grapple with what it means to be a social studies teacher given the realities of their individual school contexts, and attempt to understand the larger social forces that impact their work. This article presents the following points of analysis: (1) The role of the principal and the school board in shaping school culture at an Islamic academy. (2) The important distinction between parochial and independent schools in Catholic education (3) The ways that teachers in public schools engage with religion and controversial issues more broadly in their social studies classrooms, given their obligations to a broader “community” and (4) How moving beyond the etic and emic can provide a more nuanced understanding of the work of social studies teachers.