What is Elementary Social Studies

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What is Elementary Social Studies?

• Some think the goal of elementary social studies
  is to prepare young people for citizenship.
• --- or ---
• Others believe it is an umbrella term for courses
  in history, geography, and social sciences.

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Elementary teachers think social studies is

• Whatever is emphasized in state and district
  standards or curriculum guides.
• Whatever is emphasized in adopted textbooks.

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Examples

• Primary (K-3) becomes units on holidays and
  cultural universals studied in the context of
  family, neighborhood, or community.
• Middle Grades (4-6) becomes units on state,
  American history and geography, geographical
  regions, and on past and present world cultures.

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Most social educators accept the idea that
social studies bears a special responsibility for
citizen education

• If this is so, what is the problem?

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Response 1 Academic Discipline

• Schools should equip students with knowledge that
  is lasting, important, and fundamental to the
  human experience.
• Academic disciplines as store houses of important
  knowledge and as sources of authority about how
  this knowledge is organized and taught.

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Response 2 Developmentalist View

• Curriculum planning should follow the natural
  course of child development.
• Content should connect to interests and learning
  needs associated with its corresponding ages and
  stages.

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Response 3 Social Efficiency

• Defines social studies as helping children
  develop the skills needed by the society and
  designing school experiences that prepare
  children to fill adult roles.

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Response 4 Social Reconstructivist Position

• Curriculum should teach students to combat social
  injustice and promote social change.
• Curriculum and instruction should center around
  social policy issues.

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Three Main Traditions

• Citizenship transmission with emphasis on
  inculcating traditional values
• Teaching social science, with emphasis on
  data-gathering skills and discipline knowledge
• Reflective inquiry, with emphasis on analyzing
  values and making decisions about social and
  civic issues

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Citizenship Transmission

• Emphasis on inculcating traditional values
• Mainstream approach to elementary social studies
• Support for status quo
• Emphasis on western civilization
• Uncritical celebration of, and inculcation into,
  American political values and traditions

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Teaching Social Science

• Emphasis on data-gathering skills
• Better coverage of discipline knowledge/content
• Preservation of separate disciplines

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Reflective Thinking

• Emphasis on analyzing values and making decisions
  about social and civic issues
• Influenced by John Dewey
• Discussions of problems and issues that feature
  critical thinking, values analysis, and decision
  making

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Five Approaches to Elementary Social Studies

• Transmission of the cultural heritage
• Social science
• Reflective inquiry
• Informed social criticism
• Personal Development

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Perspective 1Transmission of Cultural
Heritage

• Transmitting traditional knowledge and values as
  a framework for making decisions

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Perspective 2Social Science

• Mastering social science concepts,
  generalizations, and processes to build a
  knowledge base for later learning

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Perspective 3Reflective inquiry

• Employing a process of thinking and learning in
  which knowledge is derived from what citizens
  need to know in order to make decisions and solve
  problems

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Perspective 4 Informed Social Criticism

• Providing opportunities for an examination,
  critique, and revision of past traditions,
  existing social practices, and modes of problem
  solving

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Perspective 5Personal Development

• Developing a positive self-concept and a strong
  sense personal efficacy

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How would you name your own position as an
elementary social studies teacher?

• How did you come to hold this position?

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How do these traditions connect to

• Textbook based, lecture-recitation, seatwork
  approaches to teaching?
• --- or ---
• Constructivist approaches that emphasize
  reasoning and valuing processes?

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What do these varying perspectives demonstrate?

• There is competition between well-articulated
  alternative interpretations of how social studies
  carries out its citizen education mission!!!!!!!!

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Recent Elementary Social Studies Reform

• E.D. Hirsch, Jr. has proposed cultural literacy
  as the basis for developing social studies
  curricula
• Separate academic discipline courses that focus
  on history, geography and social sciences- not
  citizenship education
• Emphasis on history and related childrens
  literature
• Emphasis on inquiry and debate of social policy
  issues

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NCSS Definition

• Social studies is the integrated study of the
  social sciences and humanities to promote civic
  competence. The primary purpose of social
  studies to help young people develop the ability
  to make informed and reasoned decisions for the
  public good as citizens of a culturally diverse,
  democratic society in an independent world.

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Social Sciences

• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Economics
• Geography
• History
• Philosophy
• Political Science (law, civics, government)
• Psychology
• Sociology