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Transforming Teaching and Learning about American Indians: 4 Sarah Shear

3,094 views · Published 9 November 2018 · 26:49 · Indexed 3 October 2026

Channel: SmithsonianNMAI · 2018 · Education

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Contemporary teaching about American Indians frequently present just a tiny glimpse into the rich and diverse cultures, histories, and contemporary lives of Native peoples. Transforming Teaching and Learning about American Indians is a symposium that explores the need to transform education about Native Americans that seek to address this deficiency and others. In this segment, Sarah Shear, Penn State Altoona, speaks on "Manifesting Destiny: Representations of Native Peoples and Nations in U.S. History and Civics State-level."

Sarah B. Shear is an assistant professor of social studies education at Penn State Altoona. Her research focuses on K-12 social studies curriculum within Indigenous contexts. Dr. Shear examines issues of race and settler colonialism in social studies state standards and textbooks, teacher education, film, and qualitative research methodologies. Her work is published in Theory and Research in Social Education, Journal of Social Studies Education, and Qualitative Inquiry. Dr. Shear’s work is also featured in the books Race Lessons: Using Inquiry to Teach about Race in Social Studies, Cinematic Social Studies: A Resource for Teaching and Learning Social Studies with Film, and Doing Race in Social Studies: Critical Perspectives. She co-edited (Re)Imagining Elementary Social Studies: A Controversial Issues Reader, published in 2018, and is co-editing a forthcoming book, Marking the Invisible: Articulating Whiteness in Social Studies Education and Research.

The symposium was webcast and recorded in the National Museum of the American Indian Rasmuson Theater on November 1, 2018.

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