Using discourse analysis, this article traces the persistence of eugenic ideology through the narrative structures of world history in the California Department of Education's history/social science K-12 framework. This article excavates the hidden depths at which scientific racism has become embedded into the curriculum and asks, "How do…

Many educational studies reference ideology, imaginary, and myth constructs represented in programs of study, textbooks, and school rituals. In the fields of history, civic, and social studies education, for example, many scholars frequently employ these terms to examine mythic groundings of particular nationalisms entwined with the ways in which…

This article examines the dynamic between educational leadership in terms of school administration and social studies education pedagogy. The article examines the tension between the mandate for school principals in an age of increased school accountability, and the essence and delivery of social studies pedagogy. The data compiled examine the…

In this report, the authors present findings from their analysis of social studies state standards. The following questions guided their work: (1) To what extent do middle and high school (grades 8-12) history and civics state standards support teaching about political parties? For the states that do include language about political parties, what…

This article reports on an investigation to explore the possibility that ideology might be expressed in the treatment of corporate influence on federal government by social studies textbooks. Two textbooks were examined in the study--United States history and American government. Corporate influence involves activities that affect election and…

In this article the authors examine The Student as Historian project in highlighting how critical historical thinking can provide other and more complex renditions of history. The authors note that teachers' understandings of educational ends, purposes, values, and critical content knowledge are entwined and inextricable from ideological stances…

As it becomes increasingly essential to include China in the social studies curriculum, teachers are faced with the challenges of finding appropriate, high-quality resources, and, more fundamentally, of engaging students with a culture and a place far removed from their own. Film and video can address both issues, and there is a wealth of…

This article offers a critical review of the historical literature on the National Education Association's (NEA) 1916 Committee on Social Studies (CSS) report, the document generally believed to have launched the social studies movement in American secondary schools. The review begins with a critical analysis of the four most pervasive…

Because of its enormous significance to American history, the author wants her students to gain a rich understanding of the Battle at Gettysburg. She also would like them to make a strong emotional connection to it. She wants her students to engage with the Battle of Gettysburg on many levels--to become tangled up with the past. Her goal is to…

Defends the Bradley Commission on History in Schools' and the National Commission on Social Studies' recommendations that history should be the basis of social studies instruction. Discusses claims that such an approach is ideologically conservative and unsupported by research. Addresses the suggestion that the study of social problems is the…

In this article, the author examines how the idea (and ideal) of nation continues to serve as a directive for social studies education. He proposes discussing what a critical approach to understanding nation (and the historical narratives that define nation) might look like in the classrooms and what the stakes are for social studies educators,…

A report from Thomas B. Fordham Foundation reveals the complaints of some social studies educators regarding the teaching of American history in US classrooms. Students, they say, should study an American history that emphasizes "true heroes of the American story." Further, these educators believe that students should be freed from the alleged…

Suggests themes in Russian history that can be integrated into existing history, social studies, civics, or religion classes. Expounds on the following themes: agriculture and collectivization, police force and legality, Jews and dissidence, plurality and ideology, and the arms race. Provides bibliographic sources. (RW)

Criticizes the American Federation of Teachers publication, "Education for Democracy." Argues that the terms democracy, freedom, and rights are not clearly defined. Emphasizes the political nature of the document and the ethnocentrism represented by the writing. Makes suggestions for improvement. (KO)

In this article, the author discusses the contradictory goals of several groups and individuals that are waging war against social studies and the historians' attitudes in response to this war. He stresses that he is not claiming that these "strange bedfellows," as he comes to call them, that are attacking social studies are working in…