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“As long as I See You on Facebook I Know You Are Safe”: Social Media Experiences as Humanizing Pedagogy

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Rethinking Social Studies Teacher Education in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Understanding different peoples and cultures is a central aim of education for global citizenship. Unfortunately, many social studies courses emphasize the academic acquisition of content knowledge, but fail to offer opportunities for students to develop personal, humanizing connections with people of different cultures. Fortunately, the rise of social media like Facebook and Skype offer new possibilities for global connections. In this case study, the authors explore the interactions of 16 students enrolled in a middle/high school social studies pedagogy course and 16 counterparts in the Gaza Strip via Skype and Facebook. The authors interpreted these mediated experiences through the lens of Lan’s framework for democratic media literacy, including media literacy conceptions like transmedia judgment, mediated identity reflection, and social action with/through new media. The authors hope this chapter will offer social studies teacher educators’ insights for cultivating humanizing experiences appropriate to their contexts.

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Correspondence to Daniel G. Krutka .

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Krutka, D.G., Carano, K.T. (2016). “As long as I See You on Facebook I Know You Are Safe”: Social Media Experiences as Humanizing Pedagogy. In: Crowe, A., Cuenca, A. (eds) Rethinking Social Studies Teacher Education in the Twenty-First Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22939-3_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22939-3_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22938-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22939-3

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