Social Studies Is Dead; Long Live Social Studies! (original) (raw)

Pulling Social Studies Off the Educational Backburner

Research over the last fifty years continues to elicit similar results: social studies is perceived to be an unimportant and boring subject. However, with the rise of technology and 21st century teaching approaches, does this trend continue? Two hundred middle and high students from a large school district in Florida were surveyed to analyze whether they believe social studies is an important and favored subject. Results reveal that students still perceive social studies as unimportant but do not regard it as the most boring subject. Signs of the social studies emerging from the backburner may imply promising trends in the 21st century.

Advocating for Social Studies: Documenting the Decline and Doing Something About It

In this article, we summarize the data about the decline in instructional time devoted to social studies in schools, discuss the barriers inhibiting the teaching of elementary social studies, and then describe our advocacy visit to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., where we discussed these issues with members of Congress and their staffs. We also offer a set of advocacy guidelines in hopes of encouraging social studies professionals to state their concerns to their legislators and the public.

The Social Studies Curriculum: The Case for Its Abolition

1992

The current social studies curriculum was invented in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Its primary purpose was to social2ze the children of the diverse social groups immigrating to the country to the norms and values of U.S. social life. Based on three main arguments, the time has come to abolish social studies as it is currently known. The structure of social studies was built on a model of students' psychological development that no one any longer accepts. The structure, particularly for the first 6 years of the program, virtually has gone unchanged since 1916, even though the ideas on which it was developed have been discredited. It is impoverishing to continue to conceive of children as "concrete" thinkers able to make best sense of the immediate contents of their social environment. The structure of social studies carries a powerful and undesirable ideologi -age that often is in contrast to its overt concerns with mutt' ism and valuing other cultures. The accretion of a range of sializing aims has ensured that the objectives for the social studies are all out of proportion to the means available within it to achieve them. The results of surveys of students' knowledge of the content of social studies testifies eloquently and depressingly to this. A 13-item list of references is included. (DB)

Social Studies Curriculum and Teaching in the Era of Standardization

Social studies is the most inclusive of all school subjects. Stanley and Nelson, for example, define social studies education as "the study of all human enterprise over time and space" (1994, p. 266). Determining what is included in the social studies curriculum requires facing key questions about social knowledge, skills, and values, including how best to organize them with respect to specific subject matters (e.g., history, geography, anthropology, etc.) and in relation to the unique subjectivities of teachers and their students. Given this, it is not surprising that social studies has been racked by intellectual battles over its purpose, content, and pedagogy since its very inception as a school subject in the early part of the 20th century.

Survey on the Status of Social Studies: Development and Analysis

2013

In this paper, we outline the rationale for developing the Survey of the Status of Social Studies (S4). The instrument contains items for analyzing the organizational structure, instructional decision-making, professional attitudes, and demographics of social studies teachers. Nationally-inclusive data generated from this survey analysis were used to examine the technical and theoretical validity of the instrument. Incorporating factor analysis, findings suggest constructs embedded within S4 related to social studies pedagogy, content emphases, and technology-use that reflect extant theory. As such, the S4 and accompanying nationwide data set offer social educators a valuable resource for fostering professional development and policy.

Current Trends in Social Studies Education

We witness astounding developments in this age of information and communication. Technology has influenced all the aspects of our lives by causing inevitable changes and improvements in every field. Naturally, the world of science has greatly benefited from this change and development. In consequence, the rapid circulation of information and technology in the scientific world has increased the cooperation among scientists. This cooperation highly contributes to researches and studies in the fields of language, history, literature, education, economy, social and cultural life, politics, sports, tourism, and media and communication along with many other areas. Thus, this book contains current trends in Social Studies Education in parallel with the improvements in the world of science. It took about one year to prepare and print the book. We would like to