Sarah's Biography
Sarah Brooks taught 7th and 8th grade social studies for five years in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Virginia. She holds a B.A. in history and secondary education from Gordon College, an M.A. in social studies education from the University of Connecticut, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Virginia. Sarah is currently an Assistant Professor of Education at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in social studies pedagogical methods and educational research methodology. Sarah serves as advisor to the Millersville University Chapter of the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies (PCSS); she also serves as an elected board member of the Social Studies Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association. Sarah has previously served on the Executive Board of the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies. Her research focuses broadly on the pedagogical practices that imbue social studies with meaning for elementary, middle level and secondary students. More recent work has examined teaching about religion in the context of social studies. In addition to several book chapters, her scholarship has been published in Theory and Research in Social Education, Social Studies Research in Practice, The History Teacher, the Journal of Social Studies Research and Social Studies Journal. Sarah has been assistant editor of Social Studies Journal – an official publication of PCSS - since the fall of 2017.
Future of Social Studies in Pennsylvania
I believe that social studies is an essential component of education in Pennsylvania as it represents a most productive avenue for developing an engaged citizenry in a pluralist democracy. Social studies, at its best, can teach students how to evaluate the myriad of claims they encounter on a daily basis and to make their own evidence-based claims. Social studies can and should invite students to take informed action on the basis of the knowledge they gain and the opinions they form. I am convinced that students in K-12 classrooms can be enticed to engage in this work. For this reason, I see it as important to resist the marginalization of social studies that has occurred in school curriculum. I believe that social studies at all grade levels should be organized around compelling questions and enduring dilemmas. I am encouraged by the way in which the C3 Framework supports this type of curriculum organization, and I hope that Pennsylvania increasingly utilizes the C3 Framework.