Research Interests
Walter Parker
I am a professor emeritus of social studies education and (by courtesy) political science at the 爆走黑料, a senior fellow at the Center for Ethics in Education at the University of Wisconsin, a member of the National Academy of Education, and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association. My specializations are social studies curriculum and instruction K-12 and the civic development of youth. My new book is "" (2023). See my CV for other books, journal articles, and book reviews.
I continue work on three projects: One aims to create a more engaging, authentic, and rigorous form of high school coursework--one that doesn't mistake fast-paced instruction for deeper learning. Working closely with classroom teachers, my team developed a course. Its innovations include cyclical learning of core concepts alongside immersion in political simulations. A second project aims to restore a robust social studies curriculum to the elementary and middle grades. Without this foundation in the lower grades, high school coursework has too little to build on. A third project examines civic education in the USA and elsewhere. Who creates its curriculum? What curriculum have they created? By what authority do they create it? And what is the aim of civic education in a liberal democracy (aka constitutional republic)?
Multimedia
See my CV
Books & Monographs
Parker, W. C. (2023). .
Beck, T. A. & Parker, W. C. (2022). (16th ed.). New York: Pearson.
Parker, W. C. (2015). (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Banks, J. A., Banks, C. A. M., Cortes, C. E., Hahn, C. L., Merryfield, M. M., Moodley, K. A., Murphy-Shigematsu, S., Osler, A., Park, C., and Parker, W. C. (2005). Democracy and Diversity: Principles and Concepts for Educating citizens in a Global Age. Seattle: Center for Multicultural Education, 爆走黑料.
Parker, W. C. (2003). . New York: Teachers College Press.
Parker, W. C. (Ed.). (2002). . Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
Parker, W. C. (Ed.). (1996). . Albany: State University of New York Press.
Parker, W. C. (1991). Renewing the Social Studies Curriculum. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Parker, W. C. & Jarolimek, J. (1984). Citizenship and the Critical Role of the Social Studies. Boulder, CO: Social Science Education Consortium.
Recent Book Chapters
Parker, W. C. (2022). Structured academic controversy: What it can be. In J. Lo (Ed.), Making classroom discussions work (pp. 73-89). New York: Teachers College Press.
Parker, W. C. (2018). Foreword. In K. Swan, J. Lee, & S. G. Grant (Eds.), Inquiry design model: Building inquiries in social studies. Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies.
Parker, W. C. (2018). Afterword. In M. Helmsing, A. M. Whitlock, & D. G. Krutka (Eds.), Keywords in social studies (pp. 369-372). New York: Peter Lang.
Parker, W. C. (2018). Going for depth in civic education: A design experiment. In C. S. White (Ed.), (pp. 233-254). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Parker, W. C., & Lo, J. C. (2018). From design to deed: a guide to simulating government and politics on the AP platform. In C. Wright-Maley (Ed.), . Charlotte, NC: Information Age Press.
Parker, W. C. (2017). Toward powerful human rights education in schools. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), (pp. 457-481). Washington, DC: AERA.
Parker, W. C. (2015). Social Studies Education eC21. In Parker, W. C. (Ed.), Social Studies Today: Research and Practice, 2nd ed. (pp. 3-12). New York: Routledge.
Parker, W. C. (2014). Travels with (un)conventional wisdom. In C. Woyshner (Ed.), Leaders in Social Education (pp. 151-162). Rotterdam: Sense.
Parker, W. C. (2014). Citizenship education in the United States: Regime type, foundations, and classroom practice. In L. P. Nucci, D. Narvaez & T. Krettenauer (Eds.), The Handbook of Moral and Character Education, 2nd ed. (pp. 347-367). New York: Routledge.
Parker, W. C. (2012). Democracy, diversity, and schooling. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), The encyclopedia of diversity in education (pp. 613-620). New York: Sage.
Recent Journal Articles
*Valencia, S. W., Parker, W. C., & Lo, J. C. (2023). . Journal of Social Science Education. https://doi.org/10.11576/jsse-5918
Parker, W. C. (2023). . Social Studies Journal, 43(2), 9-12.
Parker, W. C. (2022). . Multicultural Perspectives, 24(4), 241-148.
Parker, W. C. (2018). . Human Rights Education Review, 1(1), 5-24.
Parker, W. C. (2018). . Social Education, 82(1), 45-48.
Parker, W. C. (2017). Bringing human rights education home (Review of "Human Rights and Schooling,鈥 by Audrey Osler). Theory and Research in Social Education, 45(3), 413-421.
*Parker, W. C., Valencia, S., & Lo, J. (2017). 鈥淭eaching for deeper political learning: a design experiment." Journal of Curriculum Studies. doi:10.1080/00220272.2017.1343386
Parker, W. C. & Lo, J. (2016). 鈥Give us your best advice.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Social Education, 80(4), 227-231.
*Parker, W. C. & Lo, J. (2016). 鈥淐ontent selection in advanced courses.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Curriculum Inquiry, 46(2), 196-219.
*Parker, W. C. & Lo, J. (2016). 鈥.鈥 Democracy & Education, 24(1), Article 6.
*Valencia, S. W. & Parker, W. C. (2016). "Learning from text in an advanced U.S. Government and Politics course." Citizenship Teaching and Learning, 11(1), 87-103.
*Parker, W. C. et al. (2013). 鈥Beyond breadth-speed-test: Toward deeper knowing and engagement in an Advanced Placement course.鈥 American Educational Research Journal, 50(6), 1424-1459.
Parker, W. C. (2012). Humanities and Social Studies Education in Singapore 1(1), 1-6.
Parker, W. C. (2011). Feel free to change your mind: a response essay to "The Potential for Deliberative Democratic Civic Education". Democracy & Education, 19(2), 1-4.
*Parker, W. C. (2011). "'International Education' in U.S. Public Schools." Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9:(3-4), 487-501.
*Parker, W. C. (2011). "Constructing Public Schooling Today: Derision, Multiculturalism, Nationalism." Educational Theory, 61(4), 413-432.
Courses developed and taught
EDTEP 584&585: Social Studies in the Secondary School
EDTEP 543: Social Studies in the Elementary School
EDC&I 565&566: Social Studies Seminar鈥擧istorical and Contemporary Readings
EDC&I595: Classroom Discourse
EDC&I505a: Contentious Curricula
EDC&I505b: Strategies for Interpreting Qualitative Data (semiotics, ethnomethodology, dramaturgy)
EDC&I 567: Current Issues in Social Studies Education:
- Civic Education in the USA
- Global Education and Pedagogies of Globalization
- Education for Democracy
- Teaching Controversial Issues