The primary objective of this article is to detail how two teachers in the same school site, in the American Southeast, taught war to the children of soldiers. Taken from an extensive qualitative case study involving eight teachers, this article examines the pedagogies engaged in by two teachers who expressed a desire to teach war more critically to their students. Critically here means but is not exclusive to raising student consciousness to issues of war not typically taught including investigating how (...) power, race, gender, and sex operate in war, more closely examining decisions evaluating them for their justness or unjustness. In short a more authentic exploration of war. One teacher engaged a pedagogy of tension the other a pedagogy of facts. Both resulted in a less than critical examination of war. A pedagogy of tension reflected this teacher's reaction to pressure from the community and fear of surfacing or inflicting trauma upon students. A pedagogy of facts reflected the second teachers’ beliefs that focusing teaching on facts will allow her to teach a more critical rendition of war. A qualitative empirical study, data was collected through interview and classroom observation. (shrink)

The primary objective of this article is to describe how the children of soldiers critiqued and examined media representations of war. Taken from a more extensive qualitative case study involving eight teachers, this article examines one social studies teacher and her students’ perspectives on media coverage of war through two Socratic Seminar discussions focused on two wars: the American Civil War and Gulf War. Data was collected through interviews, focus groups, and classroom observations. Students leveled a specific set of critiques (...) at television media and those who consume it. They also grappled with two ethical quandaries: censorship and the justness of war.This article emerged from an unusual place – a Mathew Brady photograph. The teacher, a lecturer typically, decided to engage her students in discussion. This discussion was designed to provide “process and sense-making time,” according to their teacher, Ms. Jones, after four days of lecture on the American Civil War. Yet, the discussion grew into something much different than Ms. Jones's original plan. It evolved into an interrogation of how the media represents war. Inspired by the thoughtful discussion, several months later, Ms. Jones engaged the same students in an examination of media representations of the first Gulf War. Ms. Jones is the focus of this article because out of the eight other teachers in the larger qualitative study, she was the only one to focus on classroom time (two entire class sessions) on media representations of war. (shrink)