Sarah B. Shear, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Room: UW2-218
Box: 358531
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

Selected Book 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.

Selected Journal Articles & Book Chapter Publications

  • 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 (5th 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

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.