Although social studies is often the “forgotten subject” in K-5 classrooms, Dr. Irenea Walker and Kimberly Carthans partnered to make space for geography: 14-by-21 feet, to be exact.
Walker is an assistant professor in the School of Teaching and Learning who instructs courses on elementary education and social studies methods. Carthans is a third-grade teacher at Thomas Metcalf School, one of Illinois State’s laboratory schools.
During the fall 2024 semester, Walker brought her TCH 258 Social Studies Methods students into Carthans’ classroom to implement a project using giant floor maps. The Traveling Maps project is part of the National Geographic Society and sponsored through each state’s Geographic Alliance. Illinois has two maps available for schools, organizations, and communities to borrow for one-week periods.
Walker explained the importance of this collaboration. “I visualize this partnership with Mrs. Carthans as an exemplar for elementary teachers to understand that social studies is an essential subject that not only teaches students about the world in which they live, but it also teaches them how to think critically and to effectively navigate the systems and individuals within these spaces,” Walker said.
This exemplary experience involved Walker’s 19 teacher candidates preparing 25-minute, small-group lessons for Carthans’s 24 third graders, every other week for five weeks.
“Small group instruction greatly benefited students, especially at the beginning of the year,” Carthans said. “Students needed lots of assistance with learning and sharing about their identity and their culture.”
Through the traveling maps, students learned how geographical location can impact cultural identity and social issues, such as climate change and technology.
“The traveling maps are also interdisciplinary, incorporating math, science, and literacy,” Walker said.
Carthans described how her students would arrive in the school’s Imaginarium classroom, then take their shoes off and walk across the map to find destinations while asking and answering geography questions.
This authentic experience exemplified the lab school’s purpose as a living classroom.
“Teacher candidates learned how to not only teach social studies content but also to teach students how to conduct effective research, particularly pertaining to different cultures and identities,” Carthans said.
In return, Carthans and her students benefited from the new perspectives and research-backed insights that Walker and her teacher candidates brought to Metcalf. Both hope to continue and extend this partnership even further in future semesters.
