Rationale for Social Studies Education

Sean Patrick Rogers

12/13/16
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With a growing emphasis on mathematics and language arts in education, social studies

faces a significant crisis. The trend of standardized testing continues to diminish the attention

towards social studies education in schools across the country. However, the value of social

studies education is more important than ever. Throughout my courses in the NEAG School of

Education as well as my experiences within several Connecticut school districts, I have

witnessed the absolutely critical influence that this discipline has on the minds of students. Social

studies education represents an opportunity for students to evaluate the sources around them,

develop vital critical thinking skills, and attain an expanded view of humanity. In social studies

classrooms, students have the indispensable experience to confront deeply entrenched

misconceptions, discuss controversial issues, and grow as members of a democratic society

through civic deliberation over the common good. With such a significant role in education, the

increasing neglect towards social studies in favor of other disciplines is hardly rational.

The world we live in is becoming increasingly complex. The Information Age allows

people to have easier access to more resources than ever before in human history. Unfortunately,

with this influx of resources comes a plethora of false information. Inaccurate websites and fake

news sources plague one’s digital quest for knowledge. Both a gift and curse, this access to

information has created “a rapidly changing world where historical ignorance seems to be the

rule rather than the exception” (Mendell & Malone, 2007). Social studies education provides the

opportunity for students to learn the invaluable skill of deciphering the information they interact

with. Within the confines of a social studies classroom, students gain the ability to distinguish

fact from fiction as they connect to the world around them. In the 2016 election, I witnessed fake

news guide voter behavior and influence the democratic process. As misleading information

continues to interfere with our very way of life, the importance of social studies education grows.
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By engaging the sources around them and analyzing the credibility of sources, students can learn

how to evaluate information and discern the reliable from the unreliable.

The skills taught in social studies transcend the evaluation of digital resources. Through

social studies, students can analyze sources that they will interact with far after their academic

careers are over. Film, music, art, and museums will be a part of students’ lives long after high

school graduation. Analysis of these popular mediums allow students to interpret these sources

instead of idly consume them. While many students may not pursue history after high school,

most will visit museums and monuments in their adult lives (Marcus, Woodward, & Stoddard,

2011). Social studies can give students the ability to see beyond what is presented and question

what isn’t presented and why this is. Through social studies education, students analyze the

sources around them not as objective and authoritative voices of the past, but instead as

subjective interpretations of what happened. Throughout this semester, my own skills of

evaluating the world around me have evolved and allowed me to better analyze sources I once

thought were authoritative sources of history. By personally evaluating each source and reaching

their own conclusion, students combat the forces of socialization and develop essential critical

thinking skills. Textbooks, museum exhibits, and documentaries are all sources that need to be

questioned and investigated like any primary source document. Through this lens of perceiving

the world, students can begin to compare sources and create informed judgments about the past

and the present. With these informed judgments, students can begin to craft reasoned arguments

backed with evidence. Without this ability to evaluate, students would be unable to create

reasoned arguments about the world around them and would instead accept and blindly follow

the conclusions of others. Social studies education allows students to understand that the past is

not something set in stone but is instead an ongoing dialogue that needs be investigated using

evidence and reason.

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To many of my students, studying the past seems like a waste of time. The knowledge

and skills that history bestows seem irrelevant in their daily lives. However, history education

has the powerful ability to let students achieve an “expanded view of humanity” (Barton &

Levstik, 2004). Through the past, students can better understand the present and put themselves

within the context of a global community. Without social studies education, students would only

be aware of their own lived circumstances. History allows students to observe a multitude of

lived experiences that differ in time and place. Through these various perspectives, students can

understand how individual’s hopes, fears, customs, and very way of life drastically differ from

their own. By learning about the difficulties and injustices that came before us, we learn to

empathize with perspectives very foreign to our own. By gaining this ability to empathize with

varying experiences of those in the past, students can gain the ability to empathize with those in

the present and understand how incredibly different people’s lived experiences are. Social

studies education can help students understand the “logic of these alternative ways of thinking

and acting, so that they don’t conclude that cultural differences are due to a lack of intelligence”

(Barton & Levstik, 2004). Many of my peers as well as family members fail to understand why it

is that I value history. To many of them, what came before us seems like knowledge that does

not apply today. However, I realize more and more every day the powerful impact history

education has on one’s outlook on the modern world. Social studies has the ability “of

humanizing us in ways offered by few other areas in school curriculum” (Wineburg, 2001). By

seeing the world through multiple perspectives throughout history, I can better observe the

modern world and understand the variety of ways that people think, believe, and act today.

Through the humanizing potential of social studies education, I have been able to place myself in

the context of a global community where empathy has stirred me to civic service.
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A social studies classroom can be a unique space in a student’s life where they can learn

to openly discuss controversial issues and address deeply entrenched societal misconceptions.

Social studies educators can establish a safe classroom environment where students can openly

converse about difficult topics. Many students have no other places where they can comfortably

approach contemporary issues such as race, gender, and class. Although these sensitive topics are

often avoided in other academic curriculums, social studies presents the perfect setting for

students to address these controversies. While educators may have difficulty approaching these

subjects, students “find the experience liberating” (Loewen, 2007). Social studies can give

students the opportunity to understand the roots of inequality and how their lives are directly

affected by these injustices. Although social studies educators may face resistance from outside

forces and even the very textbooks they are supposed to utilize, combatting the ingrained ideas of

American exceptionalism and heroism in order to address controversy and injustice is an

essential task of social studies education. I find it asinine that some social studies classrooms

avoid these topics entirely out of fear that they will face opposition from students, parents, and

administration. If students do not learn how to appropriately discuss these real world issues in a

social studies classroom, where will they learn how to? The real world is a messy place and

social studies is one of the only settings students can learn how to discuss and deal with these

modern issues. By examining these controversial ideas within a safe classroom environment,

students can learn how to address these issues in their communities and counter the inequality in

the world around them.

Within the walls of a social studies classroom, students can grow as citizens ready to

participate in our democratic way of life. The student body within a single classroom can become

a “community of practice” where individuals can develop the important skills of voicing their

opinions, listening to others, and learning how to make meaningful compromises (Levine).
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Social studies education fosters the “work of small groups of thoughtful, committed citizens

seeking to accomplish change” through civic deliberation (Levine). Utilizing structured debate,

students can gain the agency to share their thoughts, understand the thoughts of others, and reach

agreements that favor the common good. These debates allow students to hear multiple

perspectives including those of underrepresented groups (Barton & Levstik, 2004). Utilizing

civic deliberation, students can arrive at an understanding of the common good and develop a

plan to take social action and make positive change in their communities. Through their time in

social studies classrooms, students gain the skills needed to be active members of a democratic

community ready to work towards their vision of the common good. Social studies education

provides students with the opportunity to grow as committed citizens dedicated to social justice

and action.

The increasing omission of social studies education is nothing short of baffling to me.

High stakes standardized testing threatens to further erase this curriculum from education yet so

much is at stake as social studies budgets gets slashed. The absence of social studies would leave

students without invaluable critical thinking skills. Lacking the ability to evaluate the resources

around them, students would have no way of understanding the subjectivity of historical

arguments and would be unable to craft their own reasoned judgments. Education without social

studies would leave students with no exposure to the multiple perspectives that make up our

diverse world. By interacting with their peers and discussing controversial and contemporary

issues, students can gain the indispensible skill of civic deliberation and learn how to work

towards the benefit of the common good. As my career in social studies education begins, I will

be sure uphold these values and ensure that my students gain the skills needed to be critically

thinking citizens ready to work towards positive civic change in their community. In a

globalizing world, the value of social studies education seems more apparent than ever.
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References

Barton, K. C., & Levstik, L. S. (2004). Teaching history for the common good. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Levine, T. H. (n.d.). "A small group of thoughtful, committed citizens': Social studies classrooms
as communities of practice that enable social action. University of Connecticut. Retrieved
from HuskyCT.

Loewen, J. W. (2007). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got
wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Mandell, N., & Malone, B. (2007). Thinking like a historian: Rethinking history instruction: A
framework to enhance and improve teaching and learning. Madison, WI: Wisconsin
Historical Society Press. Retrieved December 11, 2016, from HuskyCT.

Marcus, A. (2016, Fall). EDCI-4210W- Instruction and curriculum in the secondary school:
Social studies. Lecture presented in methods in Gentry, Storrs, CT.

Marcus, A., Woodward, W. W., & Stoddard, J. (2011). Teaching History with Museums:
Strategies for K-12 Social Studies. New York, NY: Routledge.

Wineburg, S. S. (2001). Historical thinking and other unnatural acts: Charting the future of
teaching the past. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.