Posted March 4, 2024 — A former social studies teacher, Assistant Professor Joanna Batt wanted to learn from her prior students. What did they remember from their history classes? Did they connect personally with the content and feel valued as people?

Batt turned the questions into the focus of her dissertation, interviewing her former high school students and asking them to produce self-portraits reflecting how they saw themselves — or didn’t — in their social studies courses.

“Students felt their lives were underrepresented, especially concerning race, gender and sexuality, by the curriculum they learned in high school history classes,” Batt said. “We have to change that as a social studies field and do better because young people deserve far more.”

Batt, now in her first year at the University of Houston College of Education, earned national recognition for her research, winning the 2023 Larry Metcalf Exemplary Dissertation Award from the National Council for the Social Studies.

“This award means a great deal to me,” she said. “I see this as a recognition of what my participants went through in high school and how the field must listen to what young people have to say. This is even more essential when it comes to listening to and honoring young people who hold historically marginalized identities concerning race, gender, sexuality, religion, class and more.”

Interested in a Ph.D. specializing in social studies education?

At UH, Batt teaches Ph.D. students in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, specializing in social studies/social education, urban education and social justice. In her classes, she said, she emphasizes the importance of valuing youth voices and different types of expression, beyond the written word.

“Paying attention to the very people who were just in schools, expanding the space their voices take up in academic research, and honoring their experiences by calling for change that’s directly informed by their expertise is essential if education systems are to truly serve and value each student with equity and love,” she said.

— By Ericka Mellon and Kathy Patnaude