A volume in Research in Curriculum and Instruction Series Editor: O. L. Davis, Jr. The University of Texas at Austin In many elementary classrooms, social studies has taken a back seat to English Language Arts and Mathematics in the wake of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top This volume is not another hand-wringing lament. On the contrary, the elementary educators who have contributed to this volume have a positive set of stories to tell about how social studies can play a central role in the elementary classroom, how teachers can integrate social studies knowledge and skills throughout the school day, and how this learning can carry over into children's homes and communities. The seven case studies in this book, one at each elementary grade level, highlight exemplary teachers in whose classrooms social studies is alive and well in this age of accountability. At the end of each case study, each teacher provides advice for elementary teachers of social studies. Our hope is that elementary teachers and prospective teachers, elementary principals, social studies supervisors, staff developers, and professors of elementary social studies methods who study the stories that we tell can be empowered to return social studies to its rightful place in the curriculum.

Mission Statement: The book series, entitled ""Research in Curriculum and Instruction"", will focus on a) considerations of curriculum practices at school, district, state, and federal levels, b) relationship of curriculum practices to curriculum theories and societal issues, c) concerns derived from curriculum policy analyses and from analyses of various curriculum advocacies, and d) insights derived from investigations into curriculum history. Although the series will emphasize the American curriculum scene, aspects of curriculum practice and theory embedded in non-US countries will not be overlooked. Furthermore, this series will not restrict its concern to general curriculum matters, but it will draw explicit attention to curriculum issues relating to the several curriculum subjects. The series' primary concern will be to illuminate practice and issues toward informed and improved curriculum practice. This volume will contain selected papers presented at meetings of the Society for the Study of curriculum History across the past decade plus several specially commissioned papers from senior scholars in the field. Professor Field was the Society's President for some time during that period. Papers will treat dimensions of the development of the American school curriculum, both elementary and secondary.

Mission Statement: The book series, entitled ""Research in Curriculum and Instruction"", will focus on a) considerations of curriculum practices at school, district, state, and federal levels, b) relationship of curriculum practices to curriculum theories and societal issues, c) concerns derived from curriculum policy analyses and from analyses of various curriculum advocacies, and d) insights derived from investigations into curriculum history. Although the series will emphasize the American curriculum scene, aspects of curriculum practice and theory embedded in non-US countries will not be overlooked. Furthermore, this series will not restrict its concern to general curriculum matters, but it will draw explicit attention to curriculum issues relating to the several curriculum subjects. The series' primary concern will be to illuminate practice and issues toward informed and improved curriculum practice. This volume will contain selected papers presented at meetings of the Society for the Study of curriculum History across the past decade plus several specially commissioned papers from senior scholars in the field. Professor Field was the Society's President for some time during that period. Papers will treat dimensions of the development of the American school curriculum, both elementary and secondary.

Making the historical past come alive for students is a goal of most social studies teachers. Many youth find the people and events and movements portrayed in their textbooks to be wooden, remote, and empty. For history to become alive to them, students seek personal meanings as they use knowledge of context and ponder details. Currently most school history programs emphasize knowledge acquisition at the expense of these personal constructions of meaning. This new collection of essays provides practical assistance in the search for a more robust teaching of history and the social studies. Contributors to this volume offer insights from the discipline of history about the nature of empathy and the necessity of examining perspectives on the past. On the basis of recent classroom research, they suggest tested guides to more robust teaching. They also employ examples from classroom practice about how teachers can facilitate students' consideration of multiple and sometimes conflicting perspectives when seeking historical meanings. The contributors insist that with experienced history and social studies teachers, students can learn many historical details and, with the use of empathy, develop deepened and textured interpretations of the history that they study.

A volume in Research in Curriculum and Instruction Series Editor: O. L. Davis, Jr. The University of Texas at Austin In many elementary classrooms, social studies has taken a back seat to English Language Arts and Mathematics in the wake of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top This volume is not another hand-wringing lament. On the contrary, the elementary educators who have contributed to this volume have a positive set of stories to tell about how social studies can play a central role in the elementary classroom, how teachers can integrate social studies knowledge and skills throughout the school day, and how this learning can carry over into children's homes and communities. The seven case studies in this book, one at each elementary grade level, highlight exemplary teachers in whose classrooms social studies is alive and well in this age of accountability. At the end of each case study, each teacher provides advice for elementary teachers of social studies. Our hope is that elementary teachers and prospective teachers, elementary principals, social studies supervisors, staff developers, and professors of elementary social studies methods who study the stories that we tell can be empowered to return social studies to its rightful place in the curriculum.