| Social studies has often had a reputation amongst students for being uninteresting due to the teaching strategies and content that educators have utilized. However, in a field as diverse and relevant as social studies, there are opportunities to garner the attention of students and empower them with information to improve and enhance our democracy and society. This qualitative case study examined a teacher's enactment of the New Tech Network educational model with her students and the teaching strategies she used to engage students and gauge student achievement. Detailed teacher interviews, classroom observations, and analyses of student assignments, rubrics, and readings were the sources of data for the study. Themes emerging from the data included real world application and relevance, the utilization of scaffolding strategies, accountability and structure in student collaboration, positive teacher/student interactions, and the importance of technology in the NTN model. Discussion centered on the integration of culturally relevant pedagogy within project based learning in this particular classroom and the implications of this integration. Recommendations for future research include a more expansive study of the use of project based learning in social studies and different means of integrating culturally relevant pedagogy into project based learning. |
