Reasoning with Democratic Values: The Paradox of the Issues-Centered Curriculum

Abstract

This article critiques efforts to develop curriculum materials that pursue reflective, issues-centered inquiry in the social studies. It finds significant problems in applying rationale to practice. Reviewing Harold Rugg’s 1930s textbooks and materials from the New Social Studies in the 1960s and 70s reveals problems with bias and frame of reference in content selection and presentation. A more recent effort, Reasoning with Democratic Values, controls for these problems but in the process drains the material of emotional impact, relevance, and substantive engagement with the issues. It is questionable whether any of the reviewed materials can meet the goals of their rationales. To develop our students’ abilities to reason independently about ethical issues, it may be unavoidable that we first engage them with emotionally charged material colored by our own frames of reference. If so, careful rationale-building with students is an imperative prerequisite.