Unit III: What Is, or, What Are the Social Studies?
As
I read through the pages of The Social
Studies Wars by Ronald W. Evans, I wasn’t surprised to hear of the many ways
in which social studies education has been crafted, changed, and emphasized in such
differing ways throughout time. It is
clear to me now that most everyone has some type of agenda, laden with items
they would love to place on a highlight reel for others to absorb and accept as
noteworthy truths, and that social studies education continuously remains a
battleground for these opposing agendas and ideals. A major takeaway, then, is that the label of “social studies” truly encompasses such a
large territory, yet all of this terrain (comprised of areas such as American
history, world history, economics, civics/good citizenship, geography) stems
back to some form of our need to shape human interaction for “the better.” The problem, however, is the varying depictions
we make in our minds of that ideal human existence.
As a child, I accepted the study of history at school as something that just was…social studies as dates on a timeline, the who/what/when/where/why and how of things that couldn’t be touched because they just happened that way and it must be the whole truth because my teacher said so. Even in high school, Social Studies, for me, existed as this subject area in which I listened to a list of things that happened and thereafter learned WHY they happened, but I still didn’t really question the process too much, despite my teacher’s attempts to inform each of us that our text books might marginalize important individuals, or even whole groups, and often left major important events out entirely. I listened as more time was spent on relations pertaining to The Middle East after 9/11’s occurrence my freshman year of high school and the existence of The War on Terror, only half understanding that my teacher was trying her best to weave in basic world views for our own personal uses in the near future.
It really wasn’t until college that I started looking at social studies as something that you study as a scientific process…of inquiry and research and divergent thought and the idea that information is skewed to fit the author’s purposes. And how did I overlook the fact that the news was relayed differently on the very same night depending on which channel you choose to watch? These days, “fake news” and having to check sources for validity is YUGE, but before college (and now, years later, with my graduate classes), my studies and citations simply seemed to remain a process of ensuring that I gave appropriate credit to authors for their original, yet relatively truthful works.
It’s funny to think about how truly expansive the reach of Social Studies…this study of human relations…really is. We allow ourselves and our children to take in such an extensive amount of information. From old guys in wigs, to the depths of the civil rights movement, to economics and war policy, drugs and the sexual revolution, to the opposing presentations seen on the nightly news about what is even happening in the world (like two TOTALLY different opinions regarding huge issues like climate change and healthcare and how we treat minority groups), to social media and reality TV and even the efforts of modern cartoons to teach small children how to effectively interact with others (i.e. Daniel Tiger). Although very different, the fact that over the course of our young lives we take in such an amazing amount of information regarding the ways in which we have behaved, are now behaving, and how we might change our ways in order to behave “better” to fit the needs of our future endeavors, truly sheds light upon how much EVERYONE cares to some degree about the ways in which our stories (past, present, and future) will be written and carried out. It can be said, then, that it is so important for educators to be aware of how our depictions of social studies, history, our nation’s (and our personal) truths, are presented because each of these influences build upon one another to create tomorrow’s mindsets and actions.
As I read about our need for problem solving and inquiry-based learning in the social studies classroom, this debate over the degree in which we should focus on what has happened or how to resolve what might happen, the questioning of social order versus others’ needs for tradition to remain intact to perpetuate patriotism/Americanism…these “competing visions of the future”…I sit here in awe of the fact that anyone has ever been able to get anything done when it comes to laying out an even moderately common social studies curriculum. We have events, timelines, facts. We have reactions, perpetuated opinions, emotions, social needs. We study these realms as “suggestive warnings” and we hope to do better next time, whatever that “better” might mean to us personally. Yes, I truly do believe that somewhere within each of us there lies a desire for an improved future for both ourselves and others (although how expansive that reach to others might be may differ).
This is social studies. Our pursuit to properly relay past and current events for our students in order to teach each of them how to analyze, interpret, and thereafter promote social betterment for the future. In the end, I’d like to think that Dewey was right…that our society might be transformed into something, “worthy, lovely, and harmonious” as long as we truly do study the past, along with our present, in order to shape our actions for future generations to come.
As a child, I accepted the study of history at school as something that just was…social studies as dates on a timeline, the who/what/when/where/why and how of things that couldn’t be touched because they just happened that way and it must be the whole truth because my teacher said so. Even in high school, Social Studies, for me, existed as this subject area in which I listened to a list of things that happened and thereafter learned WHY they happened, but I still didn’t really question the process too much, despite my teacher’s attempts to inform each of us that our text books might marginalize important individuals, or even whole groups, and often left major important events out entirely. I listened as more time was spent on relations pertaining to The Middle East after 9/11’s occurrence my freshman year of high school and the existence of The War on Terror, only half understanding that my teacher was trying her best to weave in basic world views for our own personal uses in the near future.
It really wasn’t until college that I started looking at social studies as something that you study as a scientific process…of inquiry and research and divergent thought and the idea that information is skewed to fit the author’s purposes. And how did I overlook the fact that the news was relayed differently on the very same night depending on which channel you choose to watch? These days, “fake news” and having to check sources for validity is YUGE, but before college (and now, years later, with my graduate classes), my studies and citations simply seemed to remain a process of ensuring that I gave appropriate credit to authors for their original, yet relatively truthful works.
It’s funny to think about how truly expansive the reach of Social Studies…this study of human relations…really is. We allow ourselves and our children to take in such an extensive amount of information. From old guys in wigs, to the depths of the civil rights movement, to economics and war policy, drugs and the sexual revolution, to the opposing presentations seen on the nightly news about what is even happening in the world (like two TOTALLY different opinions regarding huge issues like climate change and healthcare and how we treat minority groups), to social media and reality TV and even the efforts of modern cartoons to teach small children how to effectively interact with others (i.e. Daniel Tiger). Although very different, the fact that over the course of our young lives we take in such an amazing amount of information regarding the ways in which we have behaved, are now behaving, and how we might change our ways in order to behave “better” to fit the needs of our future endeavors, truly sheds light upon how much EVERYONE cares to some degree about the ways in which our stories (past, present, and future) will be written and carried out. It can be said, then, that it is so important for educators to be aware of how our depictions of social studies, history, our nation’s (and our personal) truths, are presented because each of these influences build upon one another to create tomorrow’s mindsets and actions.
As I read about our need for problem solving and inquiry-based learning in the social studies classroom, this debate over the degree in which we should focus on what has happened or how to resolve what might happen, the questioning of social order versus others’ needs for tradition to remain intact to perpetuate patriotism/Americanism…these “competing visions of the future”…I sit here in awe of the fact that anyone has ever been able to get anything done when it comes to laying out an even moderately common social studies curriculum. We have events, timelines, facts. We have reactions, perpetuated opinions, emotions, social needs. We study these realms as “suggestive warnings” and we hope to do better next time, whatever that “better” might mean to us personally. Yes, I truly do believe that somewhere within each of us there lies a desire for an improved future for both ourselves and others (although how expansive that reach to others might be may differ).
This is social studies. Our pursuit to properly relay past and current events for our students in order to teach each of them how to analyze, interpret, and thereafter promote social betterment for the future. In the end, I’d like to think that Dewey was right…that our society might be transformed into something, “worthy, lovely, and harmonious” as long as we truly do study the past, along with our present, in order to shape our actions for future generations to come.
Katie,
ReplyDeleteYou make many thought provoking points throughout your post! Even in your first paragraph I was drawn to the use of the word "agenda". I would like to believe that an educator or politician's agenda would always be what is best for the student or citizen, however, that is not the case. So often, what is done is what is best for an individual or small group. Many of the opposition presented throughout Evan's novel highlighted examples of misinformation or judgement without facts. It is clear that an agenda was at play.
I was also reminded of similar feelings when you discussed your K-12 experience with Social Studies. Evans mentioned that a traditional view of history, “turns students into containers, into receptacles to be filled by the teacher” (Evans, 2004, pg 161). I truly feel that this was my thought process while in high school social studies. Teachers fed me information, I gathered it, and took a test. I had a similar experience when at the college level, where I was suddenly introduced to history in a whole new light. It was no longer just facts, but a mystery that needed to be solved.
Another aspect that I found really important was the last sentence of your fourth paragraph that discussed the importance of acknowledging how what we are doing will impact mindsets of students for years to come. It is hard when you are going day to day to see this big picture reality of how much of an impact that just one person can have. We have been entrusted to mold the minds of future leaders and it is an important job that we can not underestimate. The way in which we represent a specific group, person, etc. can truly make a positive or negative impact on our students.
Thank you for your thought provoking post!
Meghan
References
Evans, Ronald W. The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children? Teachers College Press, 2004.
Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. I enjoyed reading it and the conversation it produced with Meghan!
Your post has my mind swirling a bit, as you document the scope and scale of what we have been asked to do. Not just content, not just time (past, present, and future), but also process, such as inquiry and perspective-finding. The example of Daniel Tiger is a good one, too. It's a show that sometimes annoys (as a lot of children's programming does), in that way it portrays parents with endless patience for their child's (sometime's) annoying behavior (but hey, he's a tiger, so what can I say?). I also loved Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and sometimes find this show a pale reflection of the original.
Our Michigan standards are an amazing attempt to bring all of this together into a framework that is relatively manageable and coherent. Still, it dictates in ways that make me wonder if it's a good thing. Yes, I can probably connect any event in history to the present, and integrates the development of skills and dispositions. But sometimes I just want to have students think deeply about the messages embedded in children's programming! Sometimes I think students would be better off just looking at the day's news and understanding it with greater historical and ideological depth. Yet here we are teaching the War of 1812.
Still, you seem to imply that, at the end of the day, if our agenda is directed towards betterment of the future though growing our sense of community--our sense of a growing "we"--we are on the right track. I can't think of a much better philosophy of social studies education than that--simple, concise, challenging, powerful. Teach everything in the standards through that lens and you probably have some pretty powerful teaching going on!
And let's not forget the future can be studied as well. We can't know the future, but we can see the trends, talk about what is desired and not desired, and what is probable and what is just simply possible or unlikely. As I argued in a recent paper I wrote, studying the events of the Paleolithic era are a great chance to talk about the history of the human species. Maybe that is true of everything we study.
Great post!
Kyle