Examining justice in social studies research.

J. Spencer Clark, Utah State University
Steven P. Camicia, Utah State University

Abstract

Our article is an extension of a project involving a content analysis of two social studies journals, Theory andResearch in Social Education (TRSE) and The Social Studies. We performed an analysis on all articles in thesejournals from 2006-2016. Our findings from the analysis indicated a narrow frame of perspectives related toepistemologies and methodologies, and an increasing interest in examining a range of researcher andparticipant positionalities. We interpreted the range of perspectives in social studies journals in light of thepossible impact upon democratic education and social justice through Sen’s (2009) framework for theorizingjustice. We illustrate aspects of this framework by presenting positionality and autoethnography as methodsfor increasing epistemologies and perspectives in social studies education and research.