A volume in Studies in the History of Education Series Editor Karen L.
Riley, Auburn University at Montgomery This volume, The New Social
Studies: People, Projects and Perspectives is not an attempt to be the
comprehensive book on the era. Given the sheer number of projects that
task would be impossible. However, the current lack of knowledge about
the politics, people and projects of the NSS is unfortunate as it often
appears that new scholars are reinventing the wheel due to their lack of
knowledge about the history of the social studies field. The goal of
this book then, is to sample the projects and individuals involved with
the New Social Studies (NSS) in an attempt to provide an understanding
of what came before and to suggest guidance to those concerned with
social studies reform in the future-especially in light of the
standardization of curriculum and assessment currently underway in many
states. The authors who contributed to this project were recruited with
several goals in mind including a broad range of ages, interests and
experiences with the NSS from participants during the NSS era through
new, young scholars who had never heard much about the NSS. As many of
the authors remind us in their chapters, much has been written, of the
failure of the NSS. However, in every chapter of this book, the authors
also point out the remnants of the projects that remain. Chapters in
this book include: National Security Trumps Social Progress: The Era of
the New Social Studies in Retrospect by Ronald W. Evans; Hilda Taba:
Social Studies Reform from the Bottom Up by Barbara Slater Stern; Fannie
Shaftel and Her New Social Studies by Jane Bernard- Powers; Can You
Still Catch Fish with New Social Studies Bait? Ted Fenton and the
Carnegie-Mellon (Social Studies) Project by Michelle D. Cude; "The Quest
for Relevancy" Allan Kownslar and Historical Inquiry in the New Social
Studies Movement by Elizabeth Yeager Washington and Robert L. Dahlgren;
Leader-Writers: The Contributions of Donald Oliver, Fred Newmann and
James Shaver to the Harvard Social Studies Project by Chara Haeussler
Bohan and Joseph R. Feinberg; Harold Berlak and the Metropolitan St.
Louis Social Studies Project: Cultivating Social Studies at Local Level
by Carol Klages; A Red Headed Stepchild of Social Reconstruction:
Sociology and the New Social Studies by Karen L. Riley; Geography and
the New Social Studies: The High School Geography Project and the
Georgia Geography Curriculum Project by Joseph P. Stoltman; Economics
and the New Social Studies by Beverly J. Armento; Anthropology and the
Anthropology Projects, Long Ago in a Galaxy Far Away by Murry Nelson;
Making Sense of It All: A Research Synthesis on the Impact of Man: A
Course of Study by Chrystal S. Johnson; American Political Behavior: The
Project and the People by Carole E. Hahn; Small Projects of the New
Social Studies (Bring Back the Best) by John D. Hoge; The Fight over
MACOS by Larry Kraus; The "History Problem" in Curricular Reform: A
Warning to Constructivists from the New Social Studies Movement by
Geoffrey Scheurman and Keith Reynolds; We Won't Get Fooled Again; Will
We Teacher Perceptions of the New Social Studies by Mark A. Previte; The
New Social Studies and the Ethos of Multiculturalism by Gloria
Contreras; Lies and History: Unmasking Academic Complacency by David
Warren Saxe; The Wisdom of Experience and Practice by Mary E. Haas;
Inquiry Teaching and Learning: Is there, was there, a Cutting Edge in
Social Studies? Or, My Life as an 'Inquiry' Social Studies Teacher by
Jack Zevin; and Leveraging Technology for Student Inquiry: Technology in
the New Social Studies and Today by Meghan McGlinn Manfra.
