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History of Social Studies
This timeline represents commonalities across the field of Social Studies for public education in the United States -
Emergence of Social Studies curriculum
Social Studies was originally taught to "breed loyalty to the nation."
It utilized content such as the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to encourage patriotism.
Its main focuses included the disciplines of: History, Civil Government, and Geography. -
Early developments of Social Studies
During the early 1800's the field of Social Studies began to be influenced by businesses and universities.
These developments focused on the molding of the American Citizen, the Patriot.
The discipline also began to adopt a wider disciplinary scope and introduced "modern history" to the curriculum. -
Further expansions to the discipline of Social Studies and the focuses within
During the early 1900's the field of Social Studies attempted to create a direction of unified curriculum across the country.
These efforts were in large carried out by organizations such as the AHA influenced by educators like John Dewey and his introduction of the "Civil Process" of Social Studies.
Expansion focuses consisted of various histories (ancient, American, Medieval, etc. As well as new disciplines like mythology. -
Emergence of organizations to protect and direct the field of Social Studies
During this time Social Studies was further tuned to build up the American Citizen.
Organizations such as the AHA and the NEA were still heavily involved in Social Studies curriculum across the country.
Dewey remained a key figure for the foundational concepts and purposes of Social Studies and its disciplines. -
The nuclear Influence of the World Wars on Social Studies
This era of Social Studies reinvigorated the want for Nationalistic curriculum within the disciplines of the field.
The fear of the "Lagging American Student" shifted the focus of public education onto STEM centered curriculums. -
The creation of the "New Social Studies"
Coming into the 60's the Federal Government funded many "materials and projects" to offer structure and direction to the field of Social Studies.
The focuses of the "New Social Studies" were largely centerd around the ways in which educators should go about teaching the disciplines in their classrooms.
Another hurdle of the time was building a suitable direction of curriculum for public education in America, such as what disciplines, concepts, theories, theorists, etc. should be highlighted. -
A shift in curriculum to more focused disciplines of Social Studies education
During this time the push for a "synthesized" Social Studies curriculum was prominent.
Individuals such as Kuhn and Boulding's and groups like the Social Science Education Consortium wanted to unify and specify Social Studies curriculum.
The field begins to focus on a much wider array of disciplines that consisted of political science, economics, anthropology, and sociology. -
A Failing Out
Going into the 80's much of what was attempted in the decade prior was swiped from the focus of social studies and curriculum returned to the "basic" focuses like History, Geography, Civics, etc. -
Unification of Social Studies curriculum
During the 1990's another National push for the unification and stratification of the field of Social Studies was sprung. Organizations like the NCSS want to direct and influence the development of this process.
The focuses of the Social Sciences shifted to History, specifically, U.S. History, Western History, Non-western History, etc.
In 1992 a definition of Social Sciences was formed and put into effect. -
Centuries of Development of Social Studies in America
Much of what we see in Social Studies today has derived from curriculum from the early 1900's.
Social Studies is very history oriented, with emphasis on the West, college preparation, citizenship, etc.