A Reconceptualized Rationale for Elementary Social Studies

Abstract

This article describes and defends a revision of the traditional elementary social studies curriculum rationale. It calls for retaining most of the same topics, but developing them more coherently and shifting emphasis from the expanding communities sequence to introducing students to the fundamentals of the human condition as the primary rationale. It refutes criticisms of elementary social studies commonly advanced by those who call for replacing pandisciplinary social studies with history courses, and most importantly, presents the positive case for the reconceptualized pandisciplinary rationale as superior to a history rationale as the basis for developing early social education curricula.