Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Civics in Elementary Teacher Education

Overview & Synopsis

This paper addresses the importance of preparing prospective teachers for their responsibilities as future civic educators. Specifically, the authors explore children's construction of civic knowledge, identify a civics pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), outline four guiding principles that contribute to the development of civics PCK within a teacher education program, and present examples of civics-centered teacher education at two major public universities. The paper concludes by sharing prospective teachers' understandings of civics concepts garnered from their teacher preparation programs, and the authors present unresolved issues and caveats with regard to the challenge of preparing civic educators within large scale teacher education programs. (Contains 1 figure and 6 notes.)