Can a structure be created that provides a broader and more valid base for the general education curriculum in the social studies than would the structure of social science disciplines? One alternative would be to focus on the making of decisions about public issues as the crucial element of citizenship behavior in a democracy. Using the common…

Discusses 25 years of attempts to define social studies and to research social studies education. Argues that a definition that denies teachers' diverse experiences and instructional methods is dysfunctional and that research has advanced little. Calls for a reexamination of the research enterprise itself and of graduate training in education.…

A discussion of the current position of social studies in relation to teaching technique and method leads to advocating a social studies curriculum that provides for relevance to students' lives, examination of social issues, and strategies to help students deal with values and value conflicts. (Author/ND)

Proposes a definition of a culturally pluralistic democratic society and suggests that there can be no final reconciliation of ethnic identification and melting-pot pressures. Examines the role public education must play to enhance ethnic identity while promoting societal cohesion. (JDH)

A formal critique of the social studies profession by the president of the National Council for the Social Studies. He examines social studies educators' failure to question certain assumptions, including those about moral education, rights of parents, and preparation of social studies teachers. (Author/RM)

The content and components that can be included in the social studies curriculum are dependent upon how the discipline is defined. If social studies is not simply an offshoot of social sciences, but, rather a required general education program concerned with the preparation of citizens for reflective participation in a democratic society and with…

This paper defines, inquires into the relationships, and analyzes the terms social sciences and social studies. Too often social studies are a simplified instructional adaptation from the social sciences in which curricular decisions are made on the basis of dictates of the social science disciplines and of college prerequisites. A social studies…

Traditionally, the social studies have been defined as the social sciences adapted and simplified for pedagogical purposes. This definition assumes that the criteria for curriculum selection and development in social studies should come from the social sciences and not from an independent view of what the social sciences should be about. Hence,…

Given the general recognition that what we do is influenced as much or more by our value commitments as by our factual knowledge, it is ironic that social studies, the area of the curriculum supposedly focused on citizenship education, has paid so little attention to values. There are many reasons for this, but one of them, the author believes, is…