Confronting Misinformation in the Civics Classroom

Abstract

Elementary and secondary school civics, social studies, and American government teachers routinely confront misinformation in their classrooms from a range of sources. The rise in the use of digital tools in civics classes during the pandemic coincided with an increase in the amount of misinformation teachers regularly encountered. While facilitating broad access to content and discussion is a major benefit of digital tools, they also can open gateways to misinformation. This study examines whether there is a connection between pedagogies that employ digital tools and teachers’ experience with misinformation in elementary and secondary school classrooms. The core research questions addressed are: Is the amount of misinformation teachers encounter in the classroom associated with their use of digital tools for instruction? And are differences in how much misinformation teachers encounter related to the types of digital tools they use?