Celebrating Pride: Creating and Implementing Inclusive Social Studies Standards in Schools

To celebrate Pride Month in June, a Utah State Today series is highlighting university employees and students who are conducting research, academic pursuits and other projects related to or that benefit the LGBTQIA+ community.

Steven P. Camicia

Professor of Foundations and Social Studies Education, School of Teacher Education & Leadership

Area of study: Education for democracy

Why is this work important?

“Inequitable power relations in society diminish democratic communities. Critically inclusive curriculum and instruction can help students understand these inequalities and build communities built upon democracy and social justice.”

Summary of research:

Camicia’s research focuses on ways to create social studies curriculum that is more inclusive and aligns with principles of democracy. The legitimacy of a democracy is related to the degree in which the voices of those subject to its policies are included in the decision-making process. Camicia’s research examines the type and degree of inclusion within social studies curriculum and instruction.

Camicia examines curriculum standards and instructional materials to identify the perspectives that are included and excluded from social studies curriculum. He recently published two award-winning works. The first is a book about the contexts, opportunities and constraints in which LGBTQIA+-inclusive curriculum is designed and implemented. The second is an article he coauthored with Juanjuan Zhu, in which they examine the degree of LGBTQIA+ inclusion in state curriculum standards.

Learn more about Camicia’s research on critical democracy and curriculum: