Philosophy of Social Studies Education 1

Philosophy of Social Studies Education

Johnny Spencer

Miami University
























Philosophy of Social Studies Education 2

Philosophy of Social Studies
I believe that the goal of social studies education is to help students become
active, thoughtful, and reflective citizens. This goal can be achieved by a teacher who
encourages students to participate, to think critically on issues both past and present, and
to think reflectively and apply previous experiences to help solve current problems. I
believe that students should develop a felt difficulty from the content and material
presented by the teacher and have a desire to resolve or answer that felt difficulty and
learn ways in which to do so. I also believe that students should be educated on
controversial issues. Without this students remain either uneducated or miseducated
about these issues and when confronted with them they will lack the ability to make
decisions that reflect an informed, thoughtful citizen. In this philosophy, I will discuss
why I believe this to be the goal of social studies education, why I believe it is the
teachers role to encourage these actions, why students should exhibit these actions, and
why students must be educated on controversial issues.
Goal of Social Studies Education
To me, the goal of social studies education is to help transform students into
active, thoughtful, and reflective citizens. This can happen through instruction that
interests the student, instruction that creates a desire for the student to want to learn more.
According to John Deweys, My Pedagogic Creed (1987), the educational process is two-
sided. One is psychological and the other sociological. The psychological is the childs
desires and instincts to gather information and knowledge and is where nearly all
education starts. If the educator can find a way to relate the material with the childs
activity it will get a leverage; if it does not, it will result in friction, or disintegration, or
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arrest of the child nature (pg. 147) So, before the educational process can truly begin,
the teacher must be able to relate the material to the students in order to gain their
interest. This is especially important in social studies, a class in which students already
have the idea that the class will be dull and boring or that social studies has no real
impact on their lives. Once students are interested, the goal is to shape them into active,
thoughtful, reflective citizens.
After gaining the interest of the students, teachers should employ certain
instructional methods which encourage the molding of students into active, thoughtful,
and reflective students. Getting students to actively participate in the classroom is made
much easier by gaining their interest and showing how the material is relatable to their
lives. This should also have a carry-over effect in the students everyday life. Students
should be encouraged to take action in their school or community when circumstances or
issues arise that interest them and create a felt difficulty for them. Encouragement of
participation in the school and community is very important in social studies education
because one of the most essential elements to a democracy is participation. Although
many students may not be old enough to vote or participate in that fashion, they can still
be active in their community and school in many other ways. Participation of this type
and the feeling that you can actually make a difference can lead to a lifetime of political
and community involvement.
While the goal is for all students to become active citizens, it is also important for
them to be thoughtful and informed. This citizenship education is achieved through
contributions from both the social sciences and humanities. Also, this learning cannot be
one that ignores the personal experiences of the students. Without integrating the
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individual life experiences of the students, any material being taught is likely to be
viewed as irrelevant and not very useful. The social sciences provide us with a lot of
information and perspective on many different topics and issues. Although they provide a
great base of knowledge the social sciences alone are not enough to form a truly effective
citizenship education. When analyzing the facts of the social sciences, students should
ask two questions, the first question that citizens should ask of any set of facts is Are
they true? The second question is: What use can we make of them? Careful thought
about these two questions will give the citizen a sound foundation for high quality
decision making. (Ochoa-Becker, pg. 173)
Teaching of the humanities in social studies and citizenship education plays a key
role because it helps students to determine what they can make of the facts. Through the
humanities students learn about more than just the facts, they gain a greater
understanding of the circumstances and issues represented by the data and gain a greater
insight into the significance of the matter. Contributions from the humanities allow
students to learn about certain values and perspectives that often times is not possible
through the social sciences. This helps to build the students own ideas and conception of
what values they hold. The combination of both the social sciences and humanities in
citizenship education helps students to gather information and use their own values or
judgments to make their decisions. Use of both fields ensures that students are both
informed and thoughtful in their reasoning.
Encouraging the use of facts, analysis, and application of values in decision
making is also a key component in encouraging students to be reflective thinkers. To
achieve reflective thought, students must first face some perplexity or issue. In solving
Philosophy of Social Studies Education 5

this issue there are five phases to reflective thought. The first is suggestion; that is to say,
the possible outcomes or solutions to a certain problem. Second, we intellectualize what
would happen if we were to attempt a certain solution. Third, when attempting the
solution, it is done in a very controlled and tentative manner as to observe and collect
more data just as a hypothesis would be tested. After attempting possible solutions and
gathering more factual material, reasoning to decide which solution is best occurs. After
this, the hypothesis is tested by action. Put more simply, in reflective inquiry and
reflective thought students consider and investigate all evidence and context of the
situation. Students should also actively seek the truth and be open-minded to new ideas
and be able to analyze and further investigate these new ideas. The personal beliefs and
experiences also shape the decision making process of reflective thinkers as do the beliefs
and experiences of others that are learned about through deliberation. (Hunt, M.P., &
Metcalf, L. E., 1968)
I feel that a combination of these three aspects, an active citizen willing to
participate and have their voice heard, an informed, thoughtful citizen who is
knowledgeable and rationale, and a reflective citizen who takes account of all evidence,
is open to new ideas, and also takes account of not only their own, but others experiences
and perspective, is the goal of social studies education. Educating students to become
active, thoughtful, reflective citizens ensures that we can continue to have a participatory
democracy in which citizens are more involved, more informed, and more insightful in
their decision making.
Role of Teacher
Most important in achieving this goal of social studies education is the teacher.
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Without a teacher who has a genuine interest in the material, knows the material in and
out, and understands the ultimate goal(s) of social studies education, we cannot advance
the current state of social studies education. Currently, students view social studies as one
of the more boring classes they have to take and many attribute this to having to
remember names and dates that they feel are not important to them and also the interest,
or lack thereof, of the teacher. Both of these negative perceptions of social studies can be
corrected by an effective and powerful teacher as described in the NCSS standards, A
Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social
Understanding and Civic Efficacy. According to this, there are five qualities of powerful
and authentic social studies, these include the following; social studies teaching and
learning are powerful when they are meaningful, social studies teaching and learning are
powerful when they are integrative, social studies teaching and learning are powerful
when they are value-based, social studies teaching and learning are powerful when they
are challenging, social studies teaching and learning are powerful when they are active.
(Adler, 2010)
Teaching and Learning are Powerful When They are Meaningful
A meaningful social studies education includes not only studying many topics, but
studying key concepts and themes in depth. Instead of glossing over all topics it is
important to pick out those that are most vital and ensure that students have a deep
understanding of these topics so that they are prepared for whatever challenges or issues
they may face as a citizen. Students should also be given the tools necessary to gather
information, analyze and question data or ideas, and think critically when making a
decision. This education should also extend into technology and media as they are
Philosophy of Social Studies Education 7

showing an increasing importance in day to day life.
Teaching and Learning are Powerful When They are Integrative
When most people think of social studies they think of history. While history is
part of social studies it is just one subject of many that comprise the whole of social
studies. Other subjects include economics, geography, political science, sociology,
anthropology, archaeology, and psychology. All of these subjects together are what
culminate to create the background of well informed, thoughtful citizens. None is
independent of the other and only together can we get a true idea of the totality of the
human experience. This is why social studies education must be integrative. When
teaching it is important to integrate aspects from the arts, sciences, and humanities to help
foster the greatest understanding possible of a given topic.
Teaching and Learning are Powerful When They are Value-Based
Although an acquisition of the facts and ideas critical to an issue are important,
deciding on how to act with this information requires something more. Most decisions are
guided by our values or beliefs. While you, as a teacher, may have your own idea of what
values are important, it can be counter-productive and just wrong to try and force these
values on your students. Students should gain their own understanding of what values
they hold through learning about potential policies and issues and deciding how they
would act. Also, through debate and deliberation students learn to assess other points of
view, which forces them to think critically on the values that they hold, which ultimately
helps to either change or enforce those values. Debate and deliberation also helps
students to become more open-minded and tolerant of different perspectives, while also
building a cultural awareness to the similarities and differences they may have with their
Philosophy of Social Studies Education 8

peers.
Teaching and Learning are Powerful When They are Challenging
As a teacher, you should also challenge your students. This can be achieved by
having students regularly write about and analyze charts, data, graphs, primary sources,
and secondary sources. Also, you should challenge your students to question and seek
answers in all instances. This disciplined inquiry can help to motivate students to seek
their own answers, not because it is required, but because they feel that desire or felt
difficulty, and wish to answer it. Students who feel challenged to seek answers and are
intrinsically motivated to do so, are well on their way to becoming active, thoughtful, and
reflective citizens.
Teaching and Learning are Powerful When They are Active
The fifth, and final, quality of powerful teaching and learning in the social studies
is being active. Active lessons and learning call upon the student to think about and
process what it is they are learning. Rather than learn about how a certain event
concluded or the decision an individual made, it is better to learn what events lead to that
conclusion and what reasoning went into that individuals decision. It does not need to be
active as in hands-on, but active in that it requires students to participate, analyze
content in a variety of ways, think critically and reflectively, discuss with others, and
learn through the explanations and modeling from the teacher. This encouragement of
active participation and engagement can hopefully set the stage for a lifetime of
participation and engagement from students.
NCSS standards conclude their vision of powerful teaching and learning in the
social studies with this statement:
Philosophy of Social Studies Education 9

Thomas Jefferson and other founders of the republic emphasized that the vitality
of a democracy depends upon the education and participation of its citizens. The
need for an informed citizenry was the very impetus for the creation of free public
education in the United States. If the nation is to develop fully the readiness of its
citizenry to carry forward its democratic traditions, it must support the progress
toward attainment of the vision of powerful social studies teaching and learning.
(Adler, pg. 171)
I strongly support this sentiment and plan to do everything I can in implementing
effective strategies and lessons so that my students can become the educated,
participatory citizenry that this nation needs to survive and flourish.
Students Should
As stated, teachers play a critical role in determining the effectiveness of any
given curriculum. They must present a sense of enthusiasm and care that invites students
attention and helps to gain their interest. But, the teacher cannot just simply transmit
knowledge and material to the student, there must be a willingness and eagerness on the
part of the student to learn the material. From the instruction of the teacher, students
should develop a felt difficulty and have a desire to resolve that felt difficulty. They
should obtain the tools necessary to educate themselves and gather all of the facts and
information, and also the tools necessary to interpret and analyze this information to
come to a rational decision.
Students should acquire these tools for informed, rational decision making
through the instruction and lesson plans provided by the teacher. Students should be
presented with multiple sources from multiple areas or subjects so as to gain the most
Philosophy of Social Studies Education 10

complete and holistic understanding possible of the material and to learn effective ways
in which to determine the validity and appropriateness of the source.
Also, students should be exposed to multiple perspectives through these sources
and through classroom deliberation and discussion. This allows students to develop a
greater understanding of perspective consciousness so that they may see issues not only
from their perspective, but understand that there are many different views that may be of
stark contrast to their own. Opening up students to new perspectives also helps to build a
better awareness of conditions both locally and globally and an awareness to different
cultures and a diversity in ideas and customs that is not possible without exploring the
multitude of perspectives on any given topic. This awareness helps students to develop a
better idea of how global dynamics really work. An awareness of conditions worldwide
and an understanding of the different perspectives allows students to more clearly
understand just how interconnected everything is. Lastly, in attaining a global perspective
to better inform students on world conditions, different perspectives, differences and
similarities between varying cultures, and how everything intermingles together, students
should have an awareness of human choices (Hanvey, 1982). With an awareness of
previously stated conditions, perspectives, etc., comes the burden of choice in dealing
with these issues. For example, the use of fossil fuels and aerosols has greatly increased
the number of greenhouse gases which could cause catastrophic climate change. It is now
a problem of choice to discover and use more environmentally friendly options for
energy, limit use of fossil fuels, or even discontinue the use of fossil fuels altogether. The
various conditions, cultural differences, perspectives, and dynamics all have a huge
impact on how we decide to handle the issue of climate change but we must be aware that
Philosophy of Social Studies Education 11

we have a choice.
Attaining a global perspective ultimately coincides with the skills and qualities
necessary to be an active, thoughtful, reflective citizen. As a citizen you must be
conscious of not only your own, but all other perspectives that are potentially effected by
a certain issue. You must also be aware of the conditions or factors surrounding the issue
and be cognizant of the similarities or differences between ideas. An awareness of how
possible solutions could work takes not only an understanding of certain dynamics, but a
reflective thought process. All of these dimensions are what help shape our choices and
are key traits in what shape an active, thoughtful, and reflective citizen.
Teaching Controversial Issues
Being an active, thoughtful, and reflective citizen requires one to seek knowledge
and information, consider all possibilities, and discuss and learn with others. With there
being many controversial issues it is next to impossible for students to become informed
citizens without educating them on current and previous controversies. In acquiring a
democratic education, it is key to have knowledge of the history of controversial issues,
an understanding of why they are of importance, and a sense of what the current views on
the subject are. Controversy is vital to a citizenship education and the amount of
reflective thought and inquiry these issues receive has direct impacts on the vivacity of a
democracy. (Misco, 2011) Only when students and citizens approach these issues and
collectively work toward a resolution considering all possibilities is the opportunity for
social change on a local and national level conceivable. As stated by Misco (2011):
Dewey (1933) situated controversy as a central fulcrum in the reflective thinking
process. Without doubt and controversy, there is no judgment-only perception and
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recognition. Doubt, found in controversies, fuels the active search for answers and
prompts judgment to filter and weigh the reasonability of meanings, ultimately
leading to decisions based on reasonable grounds.
In teaching controversial issues it is important to establish and maintain a
classroom environment in which students are comfortable presenting their own thoughts
and ideas. It is also important that students are open to multiple perspectives and willing
to listen to the ideas of others. As a teacher, discussion and instruction should be guided
so that all sides are heard and presented allowing students to form their own ideas and
understandings rather than be told what to think. This helps students to develop a sense of
reasoning that will be essential as a future citizen. Through education on controversial
issues students are building and shaping the tools that will be necessary to be an active,
informed citizen by doing things such as; feeling the academic freedom to discuss
controversy which mirrors the freedom to discuss these ideas in a democratic society,
being open to all ideas and perspectives and gaining a true understanding of the issue, and
using the knowledge and information presented, along with personal values and
experiences to come to a rational, reasoned decision.
Conclusions
In order to educate students to become active, thoughtful, and reflective citizens it
is important that all areas previously mentioned, and even some not mentioned such as
community/parent involvement, knowledge, and instructional practices, are researched
and implemented. This holistic approach to teaching social studies further encourages
students to gain as much knowledge from multiple sources both when conducting
research and when acting as a citizen. Encompassing all areas ensures a complete,
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carefully formed knowledge and helps to put students on their way to becoming active,
thoughtful, and reflective citizens.

Works Cited
Adler, S. A. (2010). National curriculum standards for social studies: a framework for
teaching, learning and assessment. Silver Spring, Md: National Council for the
Social Studies.

Chiodo, J. J., & Byford, J. (2004). Do they really dislike social studies? A study of
middle school and high school students. Journal of Social Studies
Research, 28(1), 16-26.

Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. The School Journal, LIV(3), 77-80.

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to
the educative process. Boston: D.C. Heath and Co.

Hanvey, R. (1982). An Attainable Global Perspective. Theory Into Practice, 21(3), 162.

Hunt, M. P., & Metcalf, L. E. (1968). Teaching high school social studies: Problems in
reflective thinking and social understanding. New York: Harper & Row.

Misco, T. (2011). Teaching about controversial issues: Rationale, practice, and need for
inquiry. International Journal for Education, Law, and Policy, 7(1), 7-18.

Misco, T. (2012). EDT 433/533 Social Studies Methods. Oxford, OH: Oxford Copy
Shop.

Ochoa-Becker, A. (2007). The Social Sciences and the Humanities in Citizenship
Education. Greenwich, CT: Information Age.

Patrick, J. J., & Vontz, T. S. (2001). Components of education for democratic citizenship
in the preparation of social studies teachers. In Principles and practices of
democracy in the education of social studies teachers, J. J. Patrick & R. S.
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