Lightning Jay

As always, Dan and Michael were amazing hosts on @visionsofed.bsky.social and I'm proud to write with Tim Patterson, Jenni Conrad and
@wendychanw.bsky.social

Our conversation is based on this paper. bsky.app/profile/ligh...

Episode 216: Observing Classroom Discussions with Lightning Jay & Abby Reisman In episode 216, Dan and Michael chat with Lightning Jay and Abby Reisman about their article published in Theory & Research in Social Education, “The social studies discourse instrument: Valida…

New podcast!!! You can listen to @abbyreisman.bsky.social and I discuss the importance of discussions in the social studies classroom! It get meta!! visionsofed.com/2025/07/21/e...

As Binghamton and the broader SUNY system invests in community schools, the democratic schools that we dream of depend on our ability to prepare teachers for those contexts. It was great working with Dr. Naorah Rimkunas on this, who has a deep understanding of that work.

Most teacher ed. programs don't help teachers learn to work with families. This paper reports on our work at Binghamton U to change that. We found that when preservice teachers talk with parents, it can help teachers AND parents!!

There's a lot of evidence that collaboration between teachers and families is one of the most powerful levers in education, BUT real collaboration is tricky.

New paper! Real Talk: Designing Practice-Based Teacher Education for Family Communication www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15...

As always, I'm so lucky to get to work with @abbyreisman.bsky.social Tim Patterson Jenni Conrad and @wendychanw.bsky.social

The social studies discourse instrument: Validating an observation tool for classroom discussions This article introduces the Social Studies Discourse Instrument (SSDI), a novel observation tool for capturing whole-class discussions in social studies. This tool assesses three domains of classro...

The paper is our work on the Social Studies Discourse Instrument, which is a new validated observation tool for social studies classroom discussions. We're really hoping that it can help social studies teachers, scholars, and educators think more collaboratively. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ETANM...

#AERA is such an intense conference. I always come back with so many ideas. This year, I'm also coming back with an award! So grateful to the Social Studies SIG and my co-authors for the Outstanding Paper recognition.

Supreme Court Seems Set to Allow Opt-Outs From L.G.B.T.Q. Stories in Schools (Gift Article) In a lively and sometimes heated argument, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared poised to rule for parents with religious objections to storybooks with gay and transgender characters.

School people, bad news from SCOTUS.

This case is a big deal. Yes, LGBTQ rights, but much more:

It threatens basic school functions:
1.) Children's right to get the best knowledge;
2.) Schools' ability to do basic administration.
Here's an explainer thread: (1/)
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/u...

I'm late to the party here. Things are moving so quickly that it's hard to find the right resources. I'll keep my eye out.

Some great news!

The call for papers on Shifting Practices in History Education in Africa: Critical Perspectives and New Directions Edited by Abigail Branford, Denise Bentrovato, Johan Wasserman and Joanna Wojdon For publication from early 2026 Expressions of interest due: 1 May 2025 Due date for paper submission: 2 September 2025 Calls for improving the teaching of African history across the continent have been made by academics, activists, UNESCO, the popular press, and teachers and students themselves. These calls have identified issues such as the dominance of European history and the history of ‘great men’; the exclusion of marginalised groups; the lack of critical narratives; and the prevalence of rote-learning and teaching-to-test pedagogies. This special theme presents an opportunity to take stock of history education practices across African contexts, to identify shifts and resistance in addressing such issues. It also seeks to explore the role of different actors such as policy-makers, textbook authors, teachers and students in creating affordances and constraints in the history education space. The special theme also aspires to emphasise the voices of history teachers and students at all levels of education. Whilst curricula and policy play an important role in structuring history education, too often it is assumed rather than investigated how these are experienced by teachers and students. This special series seeks to ask how histories are navigated, internalised, ignored or resisted by teachers and students. This also includes teachers-in-training, as initial teacher education is a vital but under-emphasised arena which shapes later classroom interactions. Voices from these spaces can shed light on changing pedagogical interactions beyond the assumptions of official documents. Submit expressions of interest by May 1 2025.

HERJ has a #CallForPapers on Shifting Practices in #HistoryEducation in Africa: Critical Perspectives and New Directions.

For more information, including how to contribute, read the full call here:
journals.uclpress.co.uk/herj/news/25/

Articles will publish #OpenAccess and without APC

That's a great analogy. I think great histories do all the above, they provide knowledge and show how the knowledge is produced, what sources and questions etc. To me, the problem is making this accessible to students, not needing to create a new pathway.

A little louder for the people in the back! Sourcing, close reading, and questioning without robust historical knowledge is unlikely to generate robust demonstrations of historical thinking. @lightningjay.bsky.social directing us appropriately towards "skills, practice, AND knowledge".

Surely nothing oedipal about a government run by two Penn alum with famously horrible fathers attacking their alma mater.

Trump administration freezes $175M in funding to Penn over trans athlete policies “This is immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams” to the University of Pennsylvania, a senior White House official told WHYY News.

So smart of my alma mater to comply in advance with all the administration's demands. Can you just imagine what kind of capricious attacks on Penn's funding might have happened otherwise?

whyy.org/articles/pen...

Here's the kicker: The website posting the AI version is called something like the "stop disinformation alliance."

Why history instruction is critical for combating online misinformation Critical thinking involves specific skills for assessing evidence, but background knowledge about the subject is also essential.

Fun detail about writing in 2025. This article came out yesterday. The same day, I saw an AI slop version of my writing on a different website. An obvious "rewrite this article in worse language" prompt. Same pictures and everything.

theconversation.com/why-history-...

Why history instruction is critical for combating online misinformation Critical thinking involves specific skills for assessing evidence, but background knowledge about the subject is also essential.

New Article! Better thinking about online information requires skills, practice, AND knowledge. I make the case that this new crisis highlights just how badly we need great history classes.

theconversation.com/why-history-...

Why history instruction is critical for combating online misinformation Critical thinking involves specific skills for assessing evidence, but background knowledge about the subject is also essential.

Chess masters and physicists show how expertise, not innate talent, enables flexible thinking. For evaluating online info, that means knowing #history and civics.

A scholar explains: buff.ly/gFAFTB3
@lightningjay.bsky.social, Binghamton University, SUNY #highered #psychology

Exclusive | Columbia Is Nearing Agreement to Give Trump What He Wants The school faces a deadline to yield to administration demands in negotiations over federal funding.

Dear Higher Ed:
It won't help to take away faculty control of academic departments.

It won't help to ban masks or empower campus cops.

It won't help to overhaul admissions to favor white students.

....
...

...They were always going to shoot the puppy no matter what.

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Why history instruction is critical for combating online misinformation Critical thinking involves specific skills for assessing evidence, but background knowledge about the subject is also essential.

Why history instruction is critical for combating online misinformation
@us.theconversation.com
@lightningjay.bsky.social
theconversation.com/why-history-...

Oklahoma Proposes Teaching 2020 Election ‘Discrepancies’ in U.S. History (Gift Article) The Oklahoma Board of Education recently approved a new, more conservative social studies agenda that has irked even some Republicans.

Young-earth creationism: social-studies edition.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/u...

Billboard for the John Birch Society.

Social studies teachers: Working on a research study about right wing movements in U.S. history. What historical figures or documents do you use related to that topic and 20th and 21st histories? #sschat #edusky

It's 2025—Say No To Historic Racist Goals in U.S. Education | Opinion Schools must be a place where students can question, debate, and think critically about the world around them. But the White House's K-12 executive order pushes the education system in the opposite di...

Here’s the second op-ed!. www.newsweek.com/its-2025say-...

“…today's rhetoric proposes that a substandard education is a small cost for maintaining racism, homophobia, trans violence, and antiblackness.”

Makeup of Charter School Governing Board Could Impact Whether They Offer Religious Education - UConn Today Charter schools were codified into law with the intent of defining them as public institutions, says UConn's Preston Green, therefore secular and unabl ...

Trump's ed orders are a dumpster fire.

But the real looming school-tastrophe is different: SCOTUS agreed to decide about a religious public school.

It's confusing, so here's a weekend thread of explainers.

First: @drprestongreen.bsky.social lays out the case: (1/4)
today.uconn.edu/2025/01/make...

Very excited to have this out and looking forward to seeing it get taken up in research and schools. Always great to work and write with @abbyreisman.bsky.social @wendychanw.bsky.social Jenni Conrad and Tim Patterson!

We're building on Osbourne's work with science classrooms, but what makes our tool unique is that we built it to work with the diversity of the social studies. We look at how discussions support students' content knowledge, scrutiny of sources, empathy, and ethical action.