(DOWNLOAD) "Social Studies and the Social Order: Telling Stories of Resistance (Viewpoint Essay)" by Teacher Education Quarterly " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Social Studies and the Social Order: Telling Stories of Resistance (Viewpoint Essay)
- Author : Teacher Education Quarterly
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 219 KB
Description
For a century, the field of social studies has told a story that has framed its function and situated its identity within the broader narrative of America's cultural order. The narrative of social studies has been structured by significant tensions and questions considered necessary to address in service of the field's chosen task. This mission and responsibility has included performing the role of storyteller of the historical meaning of America, as well as educator of democratic citizens able to participate in the maintenance of this metanarrative. A basic plot line for the social studies field has been dictated by the National Council of the Social Studies (NCSS) standards (2002): A "purpose of the social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world." In other words, the social studies, as the most inclusive of all of the school disciplines (Ross, 2006), is the academic discipline to create a competent democratic citizenry able to sustain America's place within the historical story of the world. Such a notion is not self-explanatory. Defining a competent democratic citizen depends on one's position within a wide ideological register bounded by two extremes: From a revisionist philosophical position, a citizen is one who disrupts and resists all forms and systems of oppression (Ellis, 2001; Hursh & Ross, 2000) so that America can live up to its historical and moral claims as a democracy interested in justice and equality; to a more traditional, conservative perspective in which a citizen is one who accepts a given socio-cultural position and gives unquestioned support to those leaders perceived as capable of preserving America's role in the grand march of history (Ellis, 2001). However, every point along the register contains various perspectives and mixtures in relation to extremes.