Reading Autobiographies, Memoirs, and Fictional Accounts in the Classroom: Is it Social Studies?

Abstract

Two professors share ideas regarding connections between autobiography, memoir, fiction, and social studies curriculum. The authors outline two narrative approaches they employed in their social studies curriculum and instruction courses for pre-service teachers. In one required course at the secondary level, a narrative inquiry symposium was a component wherein the students explored various narratives as entry points into the construction of social, political and historical events. The authors describe a second format employed in an elective course titled, Narrative and Social Studies Curriculum. Elementary, middle years, and secondary teacher education students worked in book clubs for the duration of this course. Both approaches encouraged pre-service teachers to consider historical fiction, autobiography and memoir as valid locations of social studies knowledge. The authors note how teaching social studies through a narrative approach provides opportunities to link the local and the personal to wider concepts and universal themes. Book lists are included.