TEACHING WITH INQUIRY: SOCIAL STUDIES INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES THAT FOSTER THE CIVIC READINESS OF MIDDLE GRADERS

The decline in Americans’ civic knowledge and engagement is alarming and concerning for U.S. democracy. Over the years, there has been an increasing concern about the amount of civic knowledge and content taught in schools, students’ civic scores, equipping classrooms with civic learning opportunities, and federal funding for students in civics and civic programs. Thus, extant literature shows four critical gaps of concern: 1) curriculum gap, 2) knowledge gap, 3) research gap, and 4) funding gap. As a result, studies on civic readiness have become essential due to the growing concern for reinforcing civic readiness in U.S. classrooms. However, despite the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) advocacy for inquiry as the best practice for social studies teaching and using the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) in teaching inquiry across all social studies disciplines [history, civics, geography, economics], few studies examine the civic readiness of middle-graders using inquiry-based approaches, such as the IDM. Likewise, research examining how different schools are equipped with civic learning opportunities, practices, and access to resources for students is limited. This study employed a multiple-case design to investigate how inquiry-based instructional approaches, such as IDM, foster the civic readiness of middle graders in seven middle-grade social studies classrooms in a midwestern school. Multiple datasets were used, including 14 teacher interviews with seven middle-level social studies teachers, 162 class observation hours, and 246 documents/content analyses. This study argues that there are barriers to middle graders’ civic readiness, and teachers employ different strategies in diagnosing and addressing the barriers; however, inquiry teaching, using the IDM, is an effective instructional approach and plays a pivotal role in fostering civic readiness of middle graders. The findings highlight seven barriers for middle graders in their preparation for civic readiness. Participants shared five strategic ways to diagnose those barriers and five approaches to address them. The study further highlights practical implications for teachers and students, teacher preparation programs, policymakers and teacher educators, and future research.