Social studies is taught in kindergarten through grade 12 in schools across the nation. As a field of study, social studies may be more difficult to define than is a single discipline such as history or geography, precisely because it is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary and because it is sometimes taught in one class (perhaps called "social studies") and sometimes in separate discipline-based classes within a department of social studies. Two main characteristics, however, distinguish social studies as a field of study: it is designed to promote civic competence; and it is integrative, incorporating many fields of endeavor. In specific and more detailed terms, these distinctions mean the following:
Social studies programs have as a major purpose the promotion of civic competence-which is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of students to be able to assume "the office of citizen" (as Thomas Jefferson called it) in our democratic republic. Although civic competence is not the only responsibility of social studies nor is it exclusive to the field, it is more central to social studies than any other subject area in the schools.
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) has long supported civic competence as the goal of social studies. By doing so, NCSS has recognized the importance of educating students who are committed to the ideas and values of our democratic republic and who are able to use knowledge about their community, nation, and world, along with skills of data collection and analysis, collaboration, decision-making, and problem-solving. Students who have these commitments, knowledge, and skills will be the most capable of shaping our future and sustaining and improving our democracy. K–12 social studies programs integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes within and across disciplines.
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) has long supported civic competence as the goal of social studies. By doing so, NCSS has recognized the importance of educating students who are committed to the ideas and values of our democratic republic and who are able to use knowledge about their community, nation, and world, along with skills of data collection and analysis, collaboration, decision-making, and problem-solving. Students who have these commitments, knowledge, and skills will be the most capable of shaping our future and sustaining and improving our democracy. K–12 social studies programs integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes within and across disciplines.
Social studies programs help students construct a knowledge base and attitudes drawn from academic disciplines as specialized ways of viewing reality. Each discipline begins from a specific perspective and applies unique “processes for knowing” to the study of reality. History, for instance, uses the perspective of time to explore causes and effects of events in the past. Political science, on the other hand, uses the perspective of political institutions to explore structures and processes of governing.