Rethinking Social Studies: Beyond a March of Facts

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“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. – Nelson Mandela

Much of history describes a balance of power: who has it and who does not. You could describe history as a study of the constant imbalance of power. Wars begin and end, civilizations are built and fall, one event creates a tipping point for a larger movement. Social studies typically focus on people, yet we humans live within the context of one’s culture, our physical environments, and the society of the time. We are influenced by the world as well as being an influence on our world.

We might almost say “worlds” to emphasize that everyone has a distinct perspective on reality. Our beliefs and values sway what we see and how we see it. These filters give us a unique hue as we each view the same experience. Example: in the fable Seven Blind Mice (Young & Wong, 1992), each mouse makes a false assumption as they interact with a part of an elephant’s body, such as its tail (“It’s a snake.”).

The point to be made here is that there are many shades of meaning we can construct about an event or an object, such as a given text to read and understand in school.

This line of thinking leads to a question: when developing a social studies curriculum, should we design for different ways of seeing the world and facilitate a deeper understanding through student discussion and inquiry? Or, do we guide students toward one right answer? Many of us would verbally embrace the former. But our past actions in education seem to show we have valued the latter.

Paulo Freire wrote about this challenge in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He rallied against the “banking model of education”, in which students are seen as reservoirs for information regardless of the accuracy or source of knowledge. Past content standards and standardized testing reinforced this instructional approach. “Columbus discovered America in 1492” is an example, a day of recognition common in many schools. Few would question this. 

And yet if a teacher and students read together Encounter by Jane Yolen and David Shannon, which describes the arrival of Columbus and his crew from the perspective of the Taini people in San Salvador, this time in history no longer looks or feels the same. (Several members of that community were enslaved by the crew.) With a teacher’s guidance, students can connect today’s events with challenges of the past. Minds expand as they consider other ways of seeing the world.

Peter Johnston, author of Opening Minds, describes this process as “perspective-taking”, in which we can socially imagine what it might be like for someone else. This capacity for empathy can lead to compassion, in which we take these new understandings and put them into action in order to improve the situation for others.

So, where do we begin? Maybe through themes, such as students examining “injustice” as a common thread throughout our nation’s history. From this perspective, social studies transform from a march through facts to a vehicle for advocacy.

References

Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Johnston, P. H. (2012). Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives. Portsmouth, NH: Stenhouse.

Yolen, J. (1992). Encounter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Young, E., & Wong, B. D. (1992). Seven Blind Mice. New York: Philomel Books.