Social Studies in Elementary Education

The author wrote this new edition of the most popular elementary social studies methods text on the market with the following three goals in mind: to present the most powerful social studies content and pedagogy for children in elementary school, to offer the material in simple and accessible ways, and to write in a first person active voice. The purpose of this book is to introduce new teachers to the world of social studies teaching and learning in elementary and middle schools. Geography, history, government and the other social sciences are delivered into the palm of the new teacher’s hand along with a suite of tools for bringing social studies to life in the classroom.

The book is organized into three sections—the first orients the reader to the mission of social studies education to the increasingly diverse children we teach, the second concentrates on the curriculum, and the third deals with instruction, how we plan and teach this curriculum. Three central themes continue to pervade the book—democratic citizenship, diversity, and the social sciences—to ultimately encourage teachers to excite their students about closing the gap between social realities and democratic ideals. An exceptionally strong chapter on multicultural issues (Chapter 2) helps future teachers truly understand the changing demographics of the American classroom.

Abridged NCSS standards and their classroom applications are found at www.myeducationlab.com.

I teach in the College of Education at the University of Washington in Seattle where I chair the Social Studies Education Program. I study K—12 social studies education and, in particular, the civic development of youth. I’m especially interested in the ways civic education, multicultural education, and global education overlap. My other books are Renewing the Social Studies Curriculum (1991); Educating the Democratic Mind (1996); Education for Democracy: Contexts, Curricula, and Assessments (2002); Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life (2003); and Social Studies Today: Research & Practice (2010). I am the editor of the ‘Research and Practice’ column for Social Education, the flagship journal of the National Council for the Social Studies.

I was born and raised in Englewood, Colorado, on Denver’s south side, and taught school for ten years in Adams County on Denver’s north side. I earned the B.A. in Political Science (University of Colorado, Boulder), the M.A. in Social Foundations of Education (University of Colorado, Denver), and the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction (University of Washington, Seattle). I live in Seattle with the rain and my wife, Sheila Valencia.