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Mission Statement
At our founding, Americans agreed that there were certain characteristics that citizens of the new republic should share. Given the realities of today's world and the desire to carry the ideals of our republic into the future, it is necessary that we create a new vision for our work as social studies educators. That vision must motivate us toward a commitment to extend the promise of full scholarship and citizenship to each and every person in the United States. The central focus of this goal is the design and implementation of social studies education as a liberating force in the life of every citizen. Above all, we ought to be virtuous, that is, public spirited and self-sacrificing. Our work should illuminate the essential connection between social studies learning, democratic values, and positive and productive citizenship. As a people, then, our first priority, is to ensure our survival as a free nation through the development of students who can assume the office of citizen. And so each and every social studies educator must be willing and able to give birth again to the American dream; in each new generation; in each new child. Social studies education is the portion of the curriculum that takes as its major focus developing competent and caring citizens--citizens who believe in and work for the common good. To achieve such a vision of social studies, we must insure that students become intimately acquainted with scholarship, artisanship, leadership, and citizenship. These mutually inclusive attributes are the hallmark of excellence in social studies--a program where students will gain the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to understand, respect, and practice the ways of the scholar, the artisan, and the citizen.
Vision Statement
An exemplary social studies education aspires to nurture the growth of human talent. The scholars, artisans, and citizens which we aspire to shape should exhibit the following talents in pursuit of this service:
They listen and learn.
They read and understand.
They can talk appropriately with anyone.
They can write clearly and persuasively and movingly.
They can solve a wide variety of puzzles and problems.
They respect rigor not so much for its own sake but as a way of seeking truth.
They practice humility, respect, and self-criticism.
They understand how to get things done in the world.
They nurture and empower the people around them.
They connect.
We dedicate ourselves to fostering these talents in our students both through our curriculum and through interaction with them and each other. (1)
I. Curriculum and Assessment
An exemplary social studies department provides students with a rigorous, common core curriculum complemented with a variety of elective courses and co-curricular activities. A program committed to these ideals stimulates intellectual curiosity, requires students to demonstrate that they have learned how to learn and enables them to become productive and effective scholars, artisans, and citizens. The department articulates the outcomes it seeks for all students and evaluates each student’s attainment of those outcomes through a variety of assessments. In order to fulfill this vision:
- We will develop curriculum that fosters the mastery of academic content and skills . Students will come to listen, read, write, dialogue and understand.
- We will create opportunities for students to learn the characteristics of positive and productive citizenship. Students will manifest the virtues of citizenship which include: responsibility, perseverance, optimism, courage, honesty, loyalty, compassion, and a sense of justice.
- We will integrate technology as a means to achieve specific curricular outcomes. Students will demonstrate proficiency in technological literacy.
- We will create formative and summative assessments that measure and evaluate student achievement. Students will complete assessments which will provide evidence of their understanding of set course objectives.
- We will be creative in our assessment and allow for a variety of learning styles and characteristics. Students will demonstrate mastery in these various styles.
II. Equity and Access - Attention to Individual Students
An exemplary social studies department recognizes the importance of individual students. All students should have access to excellent and equitable programs that provide solid support for their learning and are responsive to their prior knowledge, intellectual strengths, and personal interests. Therefore:
- We will provide the information, assistance, and support that enables all students to aspire to academic excellence in reference to their particular learning styles.
- We will provide all students with the opportunity to have a college-level experience.
- We support the maxim to "know thyself". This includes both interpersonal and intrapersonal journeys.
- We will build learning environments that are safe, secure and accessible for all students.
III. Personnel--Working with a Professional Learning Community
An exemplary social studies department operates on the premise that it can only be as good as the personnel that it employs. Therefore, the Social Studies Department is committed to the recruiting and retention of individuals who posses exceptional expertise in their respective fields and a commitment to
students. In such a department:
- We will demonstrate our support of and commitment to the social studies department’s mission, vision, values.
- We will hold high expectations for student scholarship, artisanship and citizenship individually and collaboratively to create conditions that promote student achievement.
- We will model scholarship, artisanship, and citizenship through our commitment to the importance of lifelong learning.
- We will foster a balance between teacher autonomy and a collaborative culture for the benefit of reflection and collective inquiry.
IV. The Climate of Teaching and Learning
As Ben Franklin was leaving the constitutional convention one afternoon in September 1787, a young woman approached him and asked, "Well, Dr. Franklin, what have you given us?" "A republic--if you can keep it," was his reply. Keeping the Republic requires that social studies teachers labor vigilantly to ensure that the shared values of scholarship, and artisanship, and citizenship are preserved . An exemplary social studies classroom will exhibit the following characteristics:
- Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when it is meaningful . This requires us to connect knowledge, skills, and beliefs to life outside of the classroom utilizing as standards a greater depth in development of topics, and activities which personalize the meaning of content.
- Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when it is integrated. This is true for its treatment of topics, the use of instructional technology and the connections made across the curriculum.
- Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when it is value-based. It encourages the recognition of opposing points of view, respect for well supported positions, sensitivity to cultural similarities and differences, and a commitment to social responsibility. Its tools include the teaching of critical thinking to make value-based decisions about related social issues.
- Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when it is challenging. Teachers model seriousness of purpose and a thoughtful approach to inquiry and use instructional strategies designed to support and elicit similar qualities from the students. Additionally, teachers show interest in and respect for students' thinking, but demand well-reasoned arguments rather than opinions voiced without adequate thought or commitment.
- Social Studies teaching and learning is powerful when it is active. Powerful social studies teaching emphasizes authentic activities and assessments that call for real life application using the skills and content of the field. Teachers gradually move from providing considerable guidance by modeling, explaining, or supplying information that builds student knowledge, to a less directive role which encourages students to become independent and self- regulated learners. (2)
(1) Cronon, William, "Only Connect", The American Scholar, Autumn, 1998.
(2) "A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy" (Social Education, September, 1993).