The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for social studies are based on critical thinking and literacy skills. These new mandates are expected to lead to curricular and instructional changes within social studies classes. This qualitative study explored how the CCSS might have impacted the curricular and instructional decision-making of middle school social studies teachers and ultimately how the CCSS might affect a teacher’s gatekeeping role. As the CCSS initiative is fairly new, there is little research on the instructional practices being used to support the needs of teachers implementing these new standards in their classrooms as well as the processes, challenges, and successes teachers experience in addressing the CCSS in their classrooms. This study fills the gap of information lodged between a policy mandate and implementation in the classroom by contributing to the literature in the area of social studies education and the types of instruction social studies teachers may use to achieve the goals within the CCSS. Data gleaned from this study demonstrates that the CCSS had an influence on teachers’ instructional and curricular decision-making. CCSS influenced teachers’ decision-making in three domains: teacher beliefs ((individual teacher’s beliefs regarding the CCSS, including his or her personal beliefs regarding the CCSS and self-confidence to teach the skills associated with the CCSS), student assessment (the connection between standardized assessments and the CSSS), and best practices (recommended best practices by CCSS that were already being used in the classroom). As a result, teachers increased the number of the types of instructional strategies that focused on the critical thinking skills advocated by CCSS such as analyzing primary and secondary sources and using evidence from multiple sources to complete a Document Based Question (DBQ). The study also revealed that teachers felt inadequately prepared to fully implement the CCSS in their classrooms due to insufficient teacher education geared to CCSS, resources, and inconsistencies of the focus of the CCSS within participants’ Professional Learning Communities.

This dissertation explores curriculum and instruction in the world history classroom through two manuscripts. These manuscripts describe the effects of educational policy and environmental contexts on the work of world history teachers. The first study analyzes the world history curriculum, and the second study looks at how curriculum was enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, these studies make visible trends of continuity and change in the world history curriculum and teacher decision-making. The first manuscript is a qualitative analysis of the representation of women and gender in Virginia's world history curriculum. This study examines the representation of women and gender in the curriculum by analyzing curricular choices and discourse within the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) and the Curriculum Frameworks. Through content analysis and critical discourse analysis, the study identifies a lack of inclusivity in the world history curriculum and addresses how language reproduces gender stereotypes and negates the contributions of women in comparison to their male counterparts. This study is important for two reasons. First, it adds to the literature on teaching world history which is a lesser researched content area in social studies. Second, it examines how curriculum can influence inclusivity and representation in the historical narrative. This study was recently published in the Iowa Journal for the Social Studies. The second manuscript is a qualitative case study that explores the educational and environmental contexts created by the COVID-19 pandemic and how these contexts affected the curricular-instructional decisions and pedagogical practices of four world history teachers. Initially, I planned to study the effects of teacher knowledge, specifically content knowledge, on the teacher-curriculum relationship. However, the focus shifted to teacher-decision making during the pandemic. This research is vital and useful because it addresses how teachers tried to continue as normal during uncertain times. Data collection included classroom observations, participant interviews, and analysis of instructional materials. Findings reveal that teachers relied on the continuity of the curriculum while changing methods of instructional delivery, adapting classroom assessment practices, and modifying existing assignments. The most promising finding of the study reveals that teachers employed formative assessments to check for understanding and the presence of remote students. Teacher decisions show evidence of pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of students, and knowledge of contexts. The research shows that teachers made curricular-instructional decisions in reaction to pandemic educational contexts, but these choices often aligned with the research on effective and wise practice in areas like classroom assessment. / Doctor of Philosophy / As a former world history teacher and current teacher educator, I am interested in making the work of classroom teachers visible. In Virginia, world history educators are expected to teach the standardized world history curriculum. I recognized that the world history curriculum was dominated by men but did little to address the issue until I had the opportunity to develop and teach a women's studies course at Christiansburg High School. My knowledge of different types of curricula and curriculum as educational policy grew during my doctoral program. The first study grew out of a class assignment for feminist research methods. I found that men vastly outnumber women, but more importantly, that the wording of the curriculum reproduces gender stereotypes by describing the achievements of women as inferior to those of men. This study shows that the Virginia world history curriculum remained relatively consistent from 2008 to 2015 and the most significant changes reduced inclusivity instead of expanding the curriculum. This study is important because it addresses how women continue to be marginalized and underrepresented in the world history curriculum. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced students and teachers to a series of new and shifting educational and environmental contexts. I originally planned to study how world history teachers navigated the teacher-curriculum relationship, designed their planned curriculum, and then analyze the enacted curriculum or what occurred in the actual classroom. However, it was impossible to escape the educational contexts resulting from the pandemic when conducting my study. Therefore, the second study evolved to focus on the effects of pandemic educational and environmental contexts on the instructional decisions and classroom practices of world history teachers. I discovered that despite their lack of experience with remote instruction, teachers made curricular-instructional decisions that were illustrative of effective and wise practice.