The Devaluation of Social Studies in the Elementary Grades

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to determine the actual amount of instructional time spent on social studies, to determine the variety of instructional strategies used during social studies instruction, and to assess the frequency and types of technology usage during social studies instruction. As part of addressing the No Child Left Behind Act, a university in the southeast partnered with the local school system and placed 39 university pre-service teachers in Title I schools to serve as paraprofessionals. A simple data collecting instrument was designed to record data in three areas: (a) the number of actual minutes a day spent on teaching social studies, (b) the instructional strategies used, and (c) the inclusion of technology in the classroom. The data were collected over a two semester period. The data analyses revealed that the amount of time spent on social studies on average was far less than the amount of time allocated by the county and represented only a small percentage of the state mandated instructional time. When technology was used in the classroom, it was developed and utilized by the university paraprofessionals rather than the classroom teacher. The data also revealed that the variety of teaching strategies was limited primarily to “read the book and answer questions” or “define vocabulary words.” Concerns were raised about meeting state and national content standards, students not having the background knowledge to be successful in middle and high school grades, and the ability to pass the state high school exit examination.