Sarah B. Shear, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Box: 358531
Office: UW2-218
Phone: 425-352-5332
Email: shearsb@uw.edu
Website: sarahshearphd.com

Education

• Ph.D., University of Missouri, College of Education, Columbia, MO, 2014. Dissertation: Along a Möbius strip: A journey into postcolonial theory, decolonization, and social studies with/in Indigenous contexts (Advisor: Dr. Antonio J. Castro).
• M.S., University of New Haven, West Haven, CT, 2007. Program: Secondary Social Studies Education
• B.S., Magna cum laude, Boston University, College of Communication, Boston, MA, 2003. Program: Mass Communication/PR

Academic Interests

Dr. Sarah B. Shear is an Associate Professor of Social Studies and Multicultural Education at the University of Washington-Bothell. Her award-winning scholarship examines settler colonialism in K-12 social studies curriculum, teacher education, popular media, and qualitative research methods. As a member of the Turtle Island Social Studies Collective, Dr. Shear is committed to collective action to combat oppression in education.

Teaching

• BEDUC 242 – U.S. History and the Enduring War for Control of K-12 Curriculum: From Invasion to Insurrection
• BEDUC 408 – Knowing, Teaching and Assessing Multicultural Education & Social Studies
• BEDUC 438 – Teaching & Learning Tribal Sovereignty
• BEDUC 550 – Critical Pedagogy

Honors & Awards

• 2023 Early Career Award, Social Studies Research SIG of American Educational Research Association, /news/april-2023/viral-research-study-goes-to-the-white-house.
• 2023 Best Book Award for Insurgent social studies: Scholar-educators disrupting erasure & marginality, Society of Professors of Education, /news/june-2023/social-studies-meets-social-justice.

Selected Publications

• Merchant, N.H., Shear, S.B., & Au, W. (Eds.). (2022). Insurgent social studies: Scholar-educators disrupting erasure & marginality. Myers Education Press.
• Hawkman, A.M., & Shear, S.B. (Eds.). (2020). Marking the “invisible”: Articulating whiteness in social studies education and research. Information Age Publishing.
• Shear, S.B., Tschida, C., Bellows, E., Brown Buchanan, L., & Saylor, E. (Eds.). (2018). (Re)Imagining elementary social studies: A controversial issues reader. Information Age Publishing.

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

• Shear, S.B. (In press). “More than a cup of coffee”: Co-thinking about settler scholar responsibilities before-during-after curriculum scholarship with/in Indigenous communities. In C. Stanton, B. Hall, & C. Benally (Eds.), Relational scholarship with Indigenous communities: Confronting settler colonial social studies. Information Age Publishing.
• Shear, S.B. (In press). Witnessing scar(ring)s: Settler colonial theory for socials studies education research. In B. Varga & E. Adams (Eds.), The theory-story reader for social studies. Teachers College Press.
• Shear, S.B. & Sabzalian, L. (In press). Settler social studies: On disappointment and hope for the future. In E.W. Ross (Ed.), The social studies curriculum: Purposes, problems, and possibilities (5^th Edition). State University of New York Press.
• Varga, B.A. & Shear, S.B. (2024). Flows of anti-colonialism: (Re)Configurations and emplotments of more-than-witness(es/ing) in the an(thropo/glo)cene. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 21(2), 154-175. DOI: 10.1080/15505170.2022.2107585
• Hawkman, A.M., Rodríguez, N.N., Shear, S.B., & Perkins, A. (2024). The greatest lie(s) ever told: Rush Limbaugh and the white supremacist blueprint in middle grades historical fiction. Theory & Research in Social Education, 52(1), 33-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2023.2245784
• Shear, S.B. (2023). (In)separable: Social studies with/out the human. In B.A. Varga, T. Monreal, & R.C. Christ, (Eds.). Be(com)ing strange(r): Towards a posthuman social studies (pp. 136-138).Teachers College Press.
• Shear, S.B. & Hawkman, A.M. (2023). One class is not enough: Learnings from a critical race media literacy course for elementary teacher education. Multicultural Perspectives, 25(1), 21-29. DOI: 10.1080/15210960.2022.2162527
• Turtle Island Social Studies Collective. (2022). The future of social studies is Indigenous. In A.E. Vickery & N.N. Rodriguez (Eds.), Critical race theory and social studies futures: From the nightmare of racial realism to dreaming out loud (pp. 153-163). Teachers College Press.
• Turtle Island Social Studies Collective. (2022). Insurgence must be Red: Connecting Indigenous studies and social studies education for anticolonial praxis. In S.B. Shear, N.H. Merchant., & W. Au (Eds.), Insurgent social studies: Scholar-educators disrupting erasure & marginality (pp. 9-30). Myers Education Press.
• Christ, R.C., Kuby, C.R., Shear, S.B., & Ward, A. (2022). (Re)encountering A Thousand Plateaus: Producing 1000 trail(ing)s. Arts and Humanities in Public Education, 21(1), 40-58.
• Sabzalian, L., Shear, S.B., & Snyder, J. (2021). Standardizing Indigenous erasure: A TribalCrit and QuantCrit analysis of K-12 U.S. civics and government standards. Theory & Research in Social Education, 49(3), 321-359.
• Shear, S.B., & Krutka, D. (2019). Confronting settler colonialism: Theoretical and methodological questions about social studies research. Theory & Research in Social Education, 47, 29-51.
• Turtle Island Social Studies Collective. (2019). Beyond Pocahontas: Learning from Indigenous women changemakers. Social Studies & The Young Learner, 31(3), 7-13.
• Shear, S.B., Sabzalian, L., & Buchanan, L.B. (2018). Affirming Indigenous sovereignty: A civics inquiry. Social Studies & The Young Learner, 31, 12-18.
• Ward, A., Christ, R.C., Kuby, C.R., & Shear, S.B. (2018). Thinking with Klosterman’s razor: Diffracting ‘reviewer 2’ and research wrongness. Knowledge Cultures, 6(2), 28-50.
• Kuby, C.R., Christ, R.C, Holloway, N., Mulligan, J., Shear, S.B., & Ward, A. (2016). Teaching, troubling, transgressing: Thinking with theory in a post-qualitative inquiry course. Qualitative Inquiry, 22(2), 140-148.
• Shear, S.B., Knowles, R., Soden, G., & Castro, A.J. (2015). Manifesting destiny: Re/presentations of Indigenous people in K-12 U.S. history curriculum. Theory & Research in Social Education, 43, 68-101.

Selected Media Interviews

• Interview, “Right’s new social studies plan vows to fight CRT, wokeness and the “overthrow of America,” Salon, July 2022. Retrieved from https://www.salon.com/2022/07/08/rights-new-social-studies-plan-vows-to-fight-crt-wokeness-and-the-overthrow-of-america/
• Interview, SiriusXM-Doctor Radio’s About Our Kids, with SiriusXM-Doctor Radio hosts, Jess Shatkin, MD, MPH & Lori Evans, PhD from the NYU Langone Health Child Study Center at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, November 2021.
• Hawkman, A.M. & Shear, S.B. (2020). Episode 151: Articulating whiteness in social studies education with Andrea Hawkman and Sarah Shear. Visions of Education. [podcast] Retrieved from: https://soundcloud.com/visionsofed/episode-151-articulating-whiteness-in-social-studies-education-with-andrea-hawman-and-sarah-shear
• Hawkman, A.M. & Shear, S.B. (2020). Episode 13: In conversation with Dr. Andrea Hawkman and Dr. Sarah Shear. Pandemic Pedagogy: Imagining a New “We”. [podcast] Retrieved from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k258BEEj-0I&feature=youtu.be
• Turtle Island Social Studies Collective. (2020). Episode 10: Groundwork for teaching Indigenous enslavement – w/ the Turtle Island Social Studies Collective. Teaching Hard History: American Slavery [podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.learningforjustice.org/podcasts/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery/groundwork-for-teaching-indigenous-enslavement
• Interview, “These Arizona schools focus on Native culture and traditions rather than Thanksgiving,” Arizona Republic, Phoenix, AZ, November 2019. Retrieved from https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2019/11/26/these-arizona-schools-focus-native-culture-instead-thanksgiving/2581339001/
• Featured/Mentioned, “Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Rethinking American history,” Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C., October 2018. Retrieved from https://www.teachingforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Indigenous-Peoples-Day-Smithsonian-Voices.pdf

Selected Keynote Addresses & Invited Presentations

• Shear, S.B. (March 2024). For future generations: A call for anti-colonial commitments in social studies curriculum. [Invited presentation]. Indigenous Truths Rising: Social Action & Equity Conference. Hosted by the Research for Indigenous Social Action & Equity Center (RISE), Tulalip, WA.
• Shear, S.B. (March 2024). Can social studies rise to meet the moment?: A call for bravery and solidarity to build new worlds and new futures. [Keynote address]. Washington State Council for the Social Studies Spring Conference, Chelan, WA.
• Shear, S.B. (September 2022). Dreaming big, failing up: Learning to love and embrace the wild journey of possibility. [Keynote address]. Sparks of Possibility: A Focus on Indian Education (Event title), SunClan Consulting, Scottsdale, AZ.
• Shear, S.B. (November 2018). Manifesting destiny: Representations of Native peoples and nations in U.S. history and civics state-level standards. [Invited presentation]. Transforming Teaching and Learning about American Indians (Event title), National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Washington, D.C.
• Shear, S.B. (September 2018). Towards transformation: Taking a critical look at how we need to change social studies curriculum. [Keynote address]. Indigenous Peoples’ Curriculum Day & Teach-In (Event title), National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Washington, D.C. Event co-sponsored by D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice.