Jason Harshman
The University of Iowa, Teaching and Learning, Faculty Member
- Global education, Critical Geography, Social studies teacher education, Social Justice in Education, Global Citizenship, Critical Pedagogy, and 9 moreLearning and Teaching, Pedagogy, Critical Race Theory, Global cities, Human Rights Education, Teacher Education, Citizenship Education, Critical and Cultural Theory, and Critical Social Theoryedit
- Jason R. Harshman is Assistant Professor of Social Studies and Global Education at the University of Iowa. Before com... moreJason R. Harshman is Assistant Professor of Social Studies and Global Education at the University of Iowa. Before coming to Iowa he was a Lecturer and Program Manager for the Social Studies and Global Education Master's of Education program at The Ohio State University.
Jason has received travel grants to study in South Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Spain, and is a regular contributor to Global Teacher Education (http://www.globalteachereducation.org/).
A National Board Certified Teacher in Adolescent Social Studies, Jason was the New York State Social Studies Teacher of the Year in 2009, and the Central New York Social Studies Teacher of the Year in 2008. His research interests include examining the relationship between citizenship and geography within global education, and developing how media and technology are used to support global citizenship education in the social studies and teacher education.edit
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Developing a critical consumer literacy requires that individuals reflect not only on their own access and purchasing power, but what informs their decision making and the extent to which they feel, as consumers, a sense of responsibility... more
Developing a critical consumer literacy requires that individuals reflect not only on their own access and purchasing power, but what informs their decision making and the extent to which they feel, as consumers, a sense of responsibility to others. The model for teacher education discussed herein exemplifies how to engage social studies pre-service teachers in learning activities and reflection around the intersections of literacy education, the C3 Framework, and the Common Core State Standards, as well as geography, economics, and citizenship education.
Research Interests:
This chapter looks at how the integration of critical pedagogy in the social studies helps students better understand how social injustices are perpetuated and how students can take a more community responsive approach to... more
This chapter looks at how the integration of critical pedagogy in the social studies helps students better understand how social injustices are perpetuated and how students can take a more community responsive approach to service-learning. Based on a study conducted in a high school U.S. Government class in a large Midwestern city, the authors discuss how connecting in-class studies of government agencies—specifically the Department of Housing and Urban Development—to local issues through service-learning projects revealed a deeper understanding of, as well as a more critically minded approach to, citizenship and working toward social justice by participants. Findings from this mixed methods study reveal that the approaches used in this classroom fostered more critical thinking by students around why inequities persist and that involvement in such projects resulted in students’ desire to effect institutional change beyond completion of a single service-learning project.
Research Interests:
The increased urbanization of spaces in our global age requires new ways of thinking about citizenship. Within the nascent, but increasingly important field of study on spatiality and citizenship, this book provides an examination of how... more
The increased urbanization of spaces in our global age requires new ways of thinking about citizenship. Within the nascent, but increasingly important field of study on spatiality and citizenship, this book provides an examination of how the perspectives and experiences of youths can inform a more place-conscious and transnationally relevant approach to citizenship education.
Framed by work in cultural studies and critical geography, this project departs from the current literature on citizenship education by examining the critical perspectives that youths possess in relation to the experiences they have away from school. In taking this approach, this volume illustrates how power, race, gender, capitalism, borders, and religion affect how places are constructed and are differently experienced by today’s youth. In doing so, this work initiates new lines of inquiry within research on the intersection of transnational citizenship and urban geography in the youth studies.
This book, to be published by Peter Lang Publishing, provides insight into four relationships pertaining to youth citizenship and critical concepts of space: (1) what youths identify as being responsible for how they imagine and experience places; (2) the pervasiveness of race in how youths conceptualize places and define their sense of belonging; (3) how youths speak back to media and power geometries that privilege white culture; and (4) the ways in which transnational “scapes” deterritorialize cultures and disrupt borders. Taken together, these relationships serve to forward a more place conscious, flexible, and youth centered approach to citizenship education in a global age. The critical perspectives of transnationally connected urban spaces offered by youths provides new discourses for conceptualizing belonging within citizenship education.
Framed by work in cultural studies and critical geography, this project departs from the current literature on citizenship education by examining the critical perspectives that youths possess in relation to the experiences they have away from school. In taking this approach, this volume illustrates how power, race, gender, capitalism, borders, and religion affect how places are constructed and are differently experienced by today’s youth. In doing so, this work initiates new lines of inquiry within research on the intersection of transnational citizenship and urban geography in the youth studies.
This book, to be published by Peter Lang Publishing, provides insight into four relationships pertaining to youth citizenship and critical concepts of space: (1) what youths identify as being responsible for how they imagine and experience places; (2) the pervasiveness of race in how youths conceptualize places and define their sense of belonging; (3) how youths speak back to media and power geometries that privilege white culture; and (4) the ways in which transnational “scapes” deterritorialize cultures and disrupt borders. Taken together, these relationships serve to forward a more place conscious, flexible, and youth centered approach to citizenship education in a global age. The critical perspectives of transnationally connected urban spaces offered by youths provides new discourses for conceptualizing belonging within citizenship education.
Research Interests:
This six-month qualitative study examines the question: How do youths conceptualize and experience place and to what extent does place inform their sense of belonging and global citizenship? Through individual and group interviews, site... more
This six-month qualitative study examines the question: How do youths conceptualize and experience place and to what extent does place inform their sense of belonging and global citizenship? Through individual and group interviews, site visits, and analysis of photographs taken by fifteen participants between the ages of 14 and 18, connections between race and place, power and the construction of borders, trans-national mediascapes and disruptions of our imagined community, and the relationship between mobility, global citizenship, and survival emerged as just a few of the key findings related to how youths imagine place and relate place to their sense of belonging in a global age.
Global citizenship research remains a growing and contested area of study; however, how one’s consciousness of place relates to her or his identity and sense of belonging within the literature is still emerging. This project is framed by the discourses of flexibility and hybridity that are shared across the theoretical scholarship of critical geography, cultural studies, and citizenship education. My work integrates these theoretical approaches to forge new ways of thinking about the experiences of youths in relation to urban and global places, and more thoroughly illustrates the complex and evolving nature of how youths of color conceptualize citizenship and places as fluid rather than static or of fixed meaning. By adopting a trans-disciplinary approach, I not only advance the place of critical geography and youth culture in the field of education, but also have initiated a line of research that will examine how the perspectives and experiences of youths can inform a more place-conscious and globally responsive approach to teacher education and the work of in-service educators.
Global citizenship research remains a growing and contested area of study; however, how one’s consciousness of place relates to her or his identity and sense of belonging within the literature is still emerging. This project is framed by the discourses of flexibility and hybridity that are shared across the theoretical scholarship of critical geography, cultural studies, and citizenship education. My work integrates these theoretical approaches to forge new ways of thinking about the experiences of youths in relation to urban and global places, and more thoroughly illustrates the complex and evolving nature of how youths of color conceptualize citizenship and places as fluid rather than static or of fixed meaning. By adopting a trans-disciplinary approach, I not only advance the place of critical geography and youth culture in the field of education, but also have initiated a line of research that will examine how the perspectives and experiences of youths can inform a more place-conscious and globally responsive approach to teacher education and the work of in-service educators.
This project seeks to understand: How do teacher candidates in secondary social studies make meaning of their lived experiences in relation to space and place and to what extent do they draw connections between these experiences and... more
This project seeks to understand: How do teacher candidates in secondary social studies make meaning of their lived experiences in relation to space and place and to what extent do they draw connections between these experiences and teaching for a culturally responsive, place-conscious pedagogy in the social studies?
Based on interviews and analysis of blog reflections and multimedia images posted on a social media site used by each participant, research findings revealed: (1) teacher candidates developed a more critical understanding of social construction and place making through experiential learning; (2) that through experiential learning and the use of social media teacher candidates developed an increased understanding of how culture and space intersect; (3) applying the concepts learned in their teacher education class created new understandings for what it means to teach social studies in a culturally responsive manner, but the extent to which teacher candidates enact those perspectives is still developing.
Based on interviews and analysis of blog reflections and multimedia images posted on a social media site used by each participant, research findings revealed: (1) teacher candidates developed a more critical understanding of social construction and place making through experiential learning; (2) that through experiential learning and the use of social media teacher candidates developed an increased understanding of how culture and space intersect; (3) applying the concepts learned in their teacher education class created new understandings for what it means to teach social studies in a culturally responsive manner, but the extent to which teacher candidates enact those perspectives is still developing.
The study aimed to learn how teachers conceptualize and teach effective global/international education that prepares students to be responsible and engaged citizens in a globally interconnected world. More than 120 IB Diploma program... more
The study aimed to learn how teachers conceptualize and teach effective global/international education that prepares students to be responsible and engaged citizens in a globally interconnected world. More than 120 IB Diploma program teachers in 30 countries participated in asynchronous on-line discussions during Fall 2011. Skype interviews were conducted during the Spring and Summer of 2012 as follow-ups to on-line discussions.
This project examines how pre-service social studies teachers enrolled in a Masters of Education and certification program understand and use the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) strands in their classrooms. The researchers... more
This project examines how pre-service social studies teachers enrolled in a Masters of Education and certification program understand and use the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) strands in their classrooms. The researchers are also interested in how pre-service teachers, based on their understandings of the NCSS strands, conceptualize and articulate critical social studies education. Interviews and classroom observations were conducted during Fall and Winter 2012-2013.
The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact removal of the 5th and 8th grade social studies Ohio Academic Achievement Test is having on the place of social studies in your school’s curriculum. A team of researchers... more
The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact removal of the 5th and 8th grade social studies Ohio Academic Achievement Test is having on the place of social studies in your school’s curriculum. A team of researchers across Ohio conducted phone interviews with elementary school principals between February and May of 2012.
Instructor for secondary social studies methods and inquiry courses, along with graduate seminars in Global Education. Oversee and mentor student teacher supervisors, collaborate with cooperating teachers during field and student teaching... more
Instructor for secondary social studies methods and inquiry courses, along with graduate seminars in Global Education. Oversee and mentor student teacher supervisors, collaborate with cooperating teachers during field and student teaching experience, and facilitate communication between the university, school administrators, teachers, and students.
Courses:
Social Studies Methods I & II
Seminar: Culture, Community, and Critical Pedagogy
Reflective Inquiry on Pedagogy
Planned Field Experience and Student teaching
Capstone
Reflective Seminar
Courses:
Social Studies Methods I & II
Seminar: Culture, Community, and Critical Pedagogy
Reflective Inquiry on Pedagogy
Planned Field Experience and Student teaching
Capstone
Reflective Seminar
Instructor for undergraduate students enrolled in Middle Childhood Social Studies Methods course. Supervise and mentor teacher candidates enrolled in the Social Studies and Global Education Master's of Education licensure program.
Instructor for Middle and Secondary Social Studies Methods, AYA Secondary Methods (multiple disciplines), Student Teaching Seminar, Student-teacher supervision, Integrated Social Studies and Language Arts (Graduate, on-line course).
AP European history, Advanced World History, Participation in Government, Adviser for Rodequoit (school newspaper), Amnesty International Adviser, * 2009 NYS Social Studies Teacher of the Year, 2008 Rochester Social Studies Teacher of the... more
AP European history, Advanced World History, Participation in Government, Adviser for Rodequoit (school newspaper), Amnesty International Adviser, * 2009 NYS Social Studies Teacher of the Year, 2008 Rochester Social Studies Teacher of the Year, National Board Certified--Adolescent to Young Adult, 2008 NYS Student Press Adviser of the Year, 2008 WITA Excellence in Education Award, 2007 Freeman Foundation Travel grant recipient (South Korea and Japan).