The New Social Studies

A volume in Studies in the History of EducationSeries Editor Karen L. Riley, Auburn University at MontgomeryThis volume, The New Social Studies: People, Projects and Perspectives is not an attempt to bethe comprehensive book on the era. Given the sheer number of projects that task would be impossible.However, the current lack of knowledge about the politics, people and projects of the NSS is unfortunateas it often appears that new scholars are reinventing the wheel due to their lack of knowledge about thehistory of the social studies field. The goal of this book then, is to sample the projects and individualsinvolved with the New Social Studies (NSS) in an attempt to provide an understanding of what camebefore and to suggest guidance to those concerned with social studies reform in the future-especially inlight of the standardization of curriculum and assessment currently underway in many states. The authorswho contributed to this project were recruited with several goals in mind including a broad range of ages,interests and experiences with the NSS from participants during the NSS era through new, young scholarswho had never heard much about the NSS. As many of the authors remind us in their chapters, much hasbeen written, of the failure of the NSS. However, in every chapter of this book, the authors also point outthe remnants of the projects that remain.Chapters in this book include: National Security Trumps Social Progress: The Era of the New Social Studies in Retrospect by Ronald W.Evans; Hilda Taba: Social Studies Reform from the Bottom Up by Barbara Slater Stern; Fannie Shaftel and Her New Social Studies by Jane Bernard-Powers; Can You Still Catch Fish with New Social Studies Bait? Ted Fenton and the Carnegie-Mellon (Social Studies) Project by Michelle D. Cude;"The Quest for Relevancy": Allan Kownslar and Historical Inquiry in the New Social Studies Movement by Elizabeth Yeager Washington and RobertL. Dahlgren; Leader-Writers: The Contributions of Donald Oliver, Fred Newmann and James Shaver to the Harvard Social Studies Project by CharaHaeussler Bohan and Joseph R. Feinberg; Harold Berlak and the Metropolitan St. Louis Social Studies Project: Cultivating Social Studies at LocalLevel by Carol Klages; A Red Headed Stepchild of Social Reconstruction: Sociology and the New Social Studies by Karen L. Riley; Geography andthe New Social Studies: The High School Geography Project and the Georgia Geography Curriculum Project by Joseph P. Stoltman; Economics andthe New Social Studies by Beverly J. Armento; Anthropology and the Anthropology Projects, Long Ago in a Galaxy Far Away by Murry Nelson;Making Sense of It All: A Research Synthesis on the Impact of Man: A Course of Study by Chrystal S. Johnson; American Political Behavior: TheProject and the People by Carole E. Hahn; Small Projects of the New Social Studies (Bring Back the Best) by John D. Hoge; The Fight over MACOSby Larry Kraus; The "History Problem" in Curricular Reform: A Warning to Constructivists from the New Social Studies Movement by GeoffreyScheurman and Keith Reynolds; We Won't Get Fooled Again; Will We?? Teacher Perceptions of the New Social Studies by Mark A. Previte; TheNew Social Studies and the Ethos of Multiculturalism by Gloria Contreras; Lies and History:Unmasking Academic Complacency by David Warren Saxe; The Wisdom of Experience andPractice by Mary E. Haas; Inquiry Teaching and Learning: Is there, was there, a Cutting Edge inSocial Studies? Or, My Life as an 'Inquiry' Social Studies Teacher by Jack Zevin; and LeveragingTechnology for Student Inquiry: Technology in the New Social Studies and Today by MeghanMcGlinn Manfra.