The National Council for the Social Studies awarded Asst. Education Prof. Patrice Grimes its 2007 Exemplary Research Award for her work regarding the history of African-American education in the South before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education court case.
"I'm very humbled," Grimes said. "I value that my colleagues in the field are recognizing the work that I'm doing."
The Exemplary Research Award "acknowledges and encourages scholarly inquiry in significant issues and possibilities for social studies education," said Prema Parmar, NCSS program manager of external relations and council communications.
Grimes' paper, "Teaching Democracy Before Brown: Civic Education in Georgia's African American Schools, 1930-1954," is part of a larger work that focuses on African-American schooling before integration. According to Grimes, little research has been dedicated to the culture of African-American schooling before the 1954 Supreme Court decision that led to the integration of schools.
"There is a presumption that when schools desegregated, African-Americans came into white schools," Grimes said. "But people never asked what [schools] they came from."
She added that many civil rights leaders from the 1950s and 1960s were products of Southern segregated schools that "contributed to their knowledge and understanding of many things including civil rights," citing figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall.
Understanding this educational history is an important step in gaining a more complete idea of education in Virginia, Grimes said.
"The final goal is to help provide greater documentation and context for schooling ... for all Americans," Grimes said. "As we examine current educational issues and challenges we have a much more representative framework. The history of schooling can inform us in making future policy decisions as well as give educators information on best practices for education."
To be eligible for this particular recognition, the research "must be theoretical, philosophical in nature and empirical," according to Parmar. Social education must be the central focus, and the research should advance conceptions of social education and knowledge of education, teaching and learning, while attending to social, political and ethical concerns, Parmar added.
Grimes will receive the award Dec. 1 in San Diego at an NCSS reception.
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