SOST 450
Rationale
What is Social Studies? Personally, I share a definition similar to James Banks’ definition (158 blue book). I like to think of Social Studies as the study of society around us, including aspects of government, public policies, social interactions, and current events. These are the most important topics that citizens will need to be informed on in order to maximize their civic productivity in their communities, both large and small scale. It is the responsibility of Social Studies to prepare students for an involving lifestyle in their community, in which they will have a chance to be informed enough to make changes that will effect not only the public and private lives of themselves, but also of others in the community. This can be accomplished by providing the knowledge base, as well as the skills, attitudes, and values that the students will need to participate in their communities. Also included in Social Studies will be the subjects of History and Geography, which deal more with concrete facts rather than ideas, and possible participation that other areas of Social Studies may offer. I see these 2 subjects as fitting into Social Studies because they contribute to the broad knowledge base that students will need to better understand society, and their place in it. This is a vague definition of a complex topic, but it will be ever changing in my life as an educator as I continue to learn and modify my ideas.
With this definition in mind, how can we challenge Social Studies to be challenging, meaningful, integrative, value-based, and active? To better explain this, lets brake it down piece by piece, and take a look at how educators can take a broad range of topics and teach them to students in a way that will leave them wanting to learn.
To make Social Studies challenging, teachers will need to hold high expectations of students, and hold them to them. If a student is to feel challenged in any Social Studies program, the material covered will need to offer room for complex thought, and critical thinking. Students will find no intellectual challenge in reading material and regurgitating it on an essay, or finding information on a book and transferring it in a palatable form so that teachers can grade “what the student learned”. In every class teachers must leave room for creative and critical thinking for students to exercise their thought processes and take time to examine topics from various perspectives. When students have the opportunity to ponder various questions looking at the same issues this will leave a chance to spark the students interests. So Social Studies can be challenging because it forces students to think critically about topics, people, events, etc., and look at them from different perspectives in an attempt to better understand them. While doing this, perhaps Social Studies topics should be taught in more depth, rather than shallow with a broad base (Olsen, 89 – bluebook).
Social Studies can be meaningful in students’ lives because it is a study of their lives as well as the lives of others. As suggested by Vygotsky, these studies need to be internalized by the students in order for it to make sense, and in order to internalize the material, the students need to hold an interest in the topic (Scheurman, 102 – bluebook). The exact content of Social Studies is looking at societies in general, including the one the students live in. With this as a springboard, Social Studies will offer topics that concern students daily lives, and will deal with events, people, concepts, that they may see on a daily basis. Topics being studied in Social Studies can be tied into students’ lives and in turn make them relevant and meaningful to the student. Information gained from study should someday be put to use, or thought about in the future, or possibly relate to information or experiences gained in the students’ past (Scheurman + Newmann, 106 – bluebook). Also Social Studies can take the opportunity to look at events around the world and how they effect students and discuss it in a manner that students find interesting. In order for Social Studies to be meaningful, it must relate to students lives, and somehow relay the sense of curiosity about society to the students.
Social Studies being integrative ties in with it being meaningful, in that it should be tied into everyday life. Social Studies is asking students to produce meaning to the material, rather than just reproduce knowledge created by others (Scheurman + Newmann, 107 – bluebook). The material gone over should be used in students’ lives, not in a way that has to be totally obvious, but perhaps in a more subtle way. The knowledge that students take away from Social Studies can influence their thought processes, and perhaps make them think more critically about a situation, or cause a student to take a new stance on political issues. The studies of society can also be related to other subjects in school, which the students can use their broad knowledge base to see the relations among different studies. Finally Social Studies can be integrative when the students use multiple intelligences. In the courses covered students will be asked to think critically on various levels, and look a concepts from analytical, moral, political, etc., viewpoints, and stimulate them to use their entire brain when examining topics.
Social Studies is value based in that students must take a stance on issues often times based on values that they hold. Thinking critically and examining differing viewpoints can make decisions and opinions, but in the end it may be personal or societal values that speak the loudest when making a decision. Also students can place value on Social Studies because it has relevance outside of class, in society and governmental processes. With this in mind, students should be able to see that the material that they are learning will come in handy in the future, or present if they want it to.
Lastly, Social Studies can be active because it allows students to put their learning to use in school, daily life, society, politics, and more. The material that students learn in Social Studies does not need to be strictly fact or concepts; students can exercise the material that they have learned by using it in society. In Political Science courses, students can go many directions with their learning, ranging from being actively involved in a political campaign, or perhaps developing an imitation or role-play. Any activity in Social Studies that will require the students to be reflective with their thought processes will help it to be active. Also the material that the students have learned should constantly be built upon and open doors for a better understanding of different concepts and ideas, providing for a broad and in depth knowledge base.
With Social Studies fitting into all of these categories, how can we as educators prepare students to be active, informed, and responsible citizens? First off, I think that we can prepare students to be active as citizens by modeling, and encouraging student activity in the community outside of class. Along with activity, students need to know the community around them, and from here they can be involved in it. As educators, if we are preaching being active citizens, we better be active citizens ourselves, and to prepare students for activity in the community we need to give them a base for it in class. Schools, or classes can offer and encourage any community service for a class, whether the class as a whole or as individuals does it.
In classes we also need to be informed citizens, and we can do this be keeping up with current events around the world and politics. This can be done by a class discussion, or a class dedicated to current events, either way we should offer a forum where students can put their 2 cents worth in about what is going on in the world. Simply allowing them to develop an opinion on a topic will prepare them to do the same in the future. A habit of reading the newspaper should also be developed, maybe for a short time each day, this would help students stay informed long past school. As far as preparing them to be responsible citizens, perhaps a sense of pride and duty needs to be installed in their minds. If students feel proud to be a good citizen, than they can go on through life living responsibly and staying active in their community. I think that responsible citizens will come after they are active and informed.
From the students 7 years of Social Studies from grades 5 – 12 I expect them to be able to perform certain tasks that will help to make them a more productive citizen in society. Students will be able to:
o understand how our governmental structure works, and actively involve themselves in the system.
o look at society as a whole a see trends in politics, business, family, crime, world news, etc.
o incorporate their knowledge of history into events, concepts, problems, etc, in today’s world.
o see how the globe fits together geographically, by being able to effectively reading a map, and understanding the regions around the U.S. as well as the world.
o understand their thought processes, perspectives, logic, and biases, in relation to things going on in contemporary society, as well as see things from the point of view of others.
o think critically on their own and make informed decisions on local and world views based on the information that they are provided through media.
o interact with their community at various levels (city council, community service, voting, civic involvement, etc.), as well as the national and global community.
These are the basic skills that I expect all students will be able to walk away from thanks to the Social Studies programs in school.
This is what I believe Social Studies is responsible for, and what it can accomplish in the lives of students. What I have mentioned in this rationale is basically what I think can be expected from educators in the field both now and in the future. Provided this all works as planned, we ought to be graduating some well informed eager citizens into the communities.