This strand of the conceptual framework means that William and Mary education students are prepared to enter the workforce with a strong pedagogical content knowledge.  As secondary education teachers, we devoted our undergraduate study to the content that we will eventually teach; in my case, this was primarily American and European History but also included human geography, foreign relations, political philosophy, and various other social studies courses.  Having become an academically successful student of social studies then, William and Mary's education school is further preparing me to be an expert in teaching that material in a way that will be both challenging and accessible to students.  In the other parts of this online portfolio you can find examples of my skills at teaching.  In the examples below I have examples of my content expertise. 

Cowboys On Water: The Failures and Successes of the Confederate States Navy

Though I would be impressed if you were to read all of this 18 page paper, it is the academic work of which I am most proud.  This was my final paper for my Civil War Era class, and I chose to write about the Confederate Navy because it such an intriguing and little-known case in American military history.  The amount of research hours that went into this paper gave me a real sense of the difficult, time-consuming, yet ultimately gratifying process of historical scholarship.  This paper's analysis of the Confederate Navy shows that I have ample experience with primary sources and deep level analysis within social studies.

The Realities of American Isolation and Engagement

This next example of my content expertise is an analysis of United States foreign policy surrounding the World Wars.  My US Foreign Policy professor asked us to respond to the following statement: “The abandonment of isolationism in favor of a policy of overseas military and strategic engagement in the first half of the 20th century was a profoundly misguided choice.  It has added nothing to the US security, which could not have been had otherwise, especially in the nuclear age, and has added many burdens and risks instead."  In this paper, I thoroughly outline the flaws in this statement.  Again, this paper shows my ability to critically approach social studies.