The disappointing results of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Civics and U.S. History have further fueled the call for consistent, high-quality social studies instruction. The response by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) highlighted the imperative for early grades, claiming "the lack of a solid…

Although inquiry-based instruction has been a centerpiece of progressive visions of social studies education almost since its inception as a school subject a century ago, teachers often struggle to conceptualize it in ways that make true inquiry possible for their students. In this essay I suggest that social educators strengthen their connection…

The aim of this research is to determine the opinions of Social Studies teachers about teaching students the skills in the curriculum. Obtaining the opinions of Social Studies teachers regarding the acquisition of the skills in the program will contribute to the improvement of the infrastructure and practices of the skills that are difficult to…

This paper leans into alterlife (Murphy, 2017) and connectivity ontologies (Harrison, 2015) to consider the implications of more-than-witness(es/ing) (our term) on social studies education. Taking a narrative approach, we engage with three more-than-human bodies (e.g., Boulder, Forest, Document(s)) in an effort to expand how act(or/ion)s of…

Primary sources are tricky documents. They can be excellent texts to use in the classroom to improve content knowledge and build skills, but care must be taken so they promote rather than thwart learning (Eicher, 2007; Newman, 2014). A couple of preliminary steps can eliminate pitfalls and help a primary source fulfill its promise. Traditionally,…

The study of history as part of the social studies curriculum is an important component of K-12 education. Yet, past research suggests that students perceive history as less important than other subjects (Brophy et al., 1992; Schug et al., 1984), find it boring and without purpose (Zhao & Hoge, 2005), and are unable to articulate why they…

Overlapping and entangled crises that comprise and propel society require near constant (re)orientation in order to understand, explain, and address the workings of a multiplicitous world. For those invested in education, this means confronting complexity through the prism of teaching and learning. Educational scholars across fields and…

Educators are faced with standardized testing weighing heavily as the basis of the curriculum. Several education policies have been put in place to support accountability in education but have created a decline in social studies instruction (Gaudelli & Laverty, 2018). This transcendental phenomenological qualitative study sought to bring…

The annual presidential address is traditionally an opportunity for the leader of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) to discuss the state of social studies and to provide insight about its direction. Central to these addresses have been reflections on the purpose of the social studies, which NCSS states is "… to help young…

In this research, it is aimed at examining the opinions of the Social Studies teacher candidates about the Lesson Study Model carried out in the Teaching Practice course. The research was designed as a case study. The participant group of the research consists of three pre-service teachers selected by the criterion sampling method: the social…

This research explores my social studies teacher educator practice and my attempts to teach about environmental sustainability. The research questions were: How can I get involved in the environmental sustainability movement on my campus as a teacher educator? What obstacles do I face? What actions do I take? Two differing cultural paradigms, with…

The goal of this study is to create the Zero Waste Attitude Scale, which will be used to determine the zero-waste attitude of social studies teacher candidates and to conduct validity and reliability studies. The data for the study were collected with a 5-point Likert-type form from pre-service teachers studying in the social studies teaching…

It is well known that a quality teacher education is necessary for qualified education. Teachers must be well-trained in multiple areas and have an open-minded structure. They must develop strategies based on the lesson and students, which needs effective material development and use. The materials to be used could be prepared by others and can be…

This article describes a content analysis of 37 Inquiry Design Modules (https://c3teachers.org), conducted with the purpose of identifying the core teaching practices (CTP) necessary to successfully enact them. Although there has been research identifying CTP in other content areas, research on social studies inquiry at the elementary level is an…

The integrated status of Social Studies in the Norwegian "Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary Education and Training 2020" reflects an international educational trend pertaining to a movement from knowledge and traditional disciplinary thinking to generic skills, competence and boundary crossing. This article…