Abstract: This study examined the teaching of controversial public issues (CPI) in middle and high school social studies classes. I sought to better understand the instruction and conceptions undergirding the instruction of secondary social studies teachers who were nominated by discussion experts as especially skillful at teaching their students to participate more effectively in CPI discussions. Using grounded theory, I analyzed three types of data: classroom observation field notes, interviews of the teachers, and CPI discussion teaching artifacts. First, I describe CPI discussions in the teachers' classes, then introduce six propositions induced about the teaching of CPI discussions. Next, I discuss how the propositions challenge and add to the existing literature on classroom discussion in secondary social studies, and suggest implications for the CPI discussion teaching practice of teachers and teacher educators.

Abstract: The Dictionary of the Social Sciences is a comprehensive reference work with over 1700 entries ranging from fifty to five hundred words covering topics such as anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, cultural studies, human and cultural geography, and Marxism. The Dictionary is aimed at students and scholars who need ready access to defined terms in a social science outside of their immediate area of expertise, for example an economist needing information regarding a political science term. The question 'What are the social sciences?' is one to which no final answer can be given, since - like other groupings of scientific and academic fields - the social sciences differ in their scope from one generation to another. There are also within-generation differences: witness the continuing controversies over whether history should be considered as one of the social sciences or as a humanistic discipline; whether geography is an independent social science or a synthetic discipline that draws upon both the social sciences and the earth sciences; whether law is a social science or a body of professional and philosophical knowledge; whether psychology belongs with the social or the natural sciences; and whether psychiatry is a social science or a branch of medicine. While the proposed dictionary will reflect the contemporary concerns of the editors, entries will certainly represent social anthropology, economics, political sciences, sociology, and statistical methodologies. The Dictinary will necessary avoid a thorough overview of these disciplines - the criteria for inclusion will limit entries to those topics in each area that will be of interest to trans-disciplinary users. A thematically organized bibliography will also be included.

Abstract: Each chapter concludes with "Expanding on this Chapter" and "Recommended Websites to Visit." 1. Meaningful Social Studies and the Student. Social Studies in the Elementary and Middle School. Building on Diversity: Meaningful Social Studies. Education for Active Citizenship. Using Technology: Deciding Whether and When (featurebox). Social Studies is Essential. Curriculum Patterns in Social Studies. Planning Powerful Social Studies Lessons. Making a Literture Connection: Considering Quality for Social Studies Instruction (featurebox). Learning Cycle: Making Good Rules. 2. Teaching for Meaningful Learning in Social Studies. How is Social Studies Best Taught in Today's Classrooms? Applying what We Know About Meaningful Learning to Social Studies Curriculum. An Effective Strategy to Assist Students in Conceptual Change. Learning Cycle: National Memorials and the Display of Power. Making a Literature Connection: Portraying Power (featurebox). Using Technology: Take an Electronic Field Trip (featurebox). Phases of a Learning Cycle Lesson Learning Cycle: Sequencing Social Studies Instruction Buiding on Diversity: Opportunities to Include Multiple Perspectives (featurebox). Principles of Teaching and Learning Supporting the Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. 3. Helping Students Develop Inquiry Skills in Social Studies. Using Inquiry Skills to Develop Students' Social Studies Ideas. Early Inquiry Skills. Building on Diversity: Early Inquiry Skills (featurebox). Social Studies Inquiry Skills. Observations, Inferences, and Hypotheses. Attitudes and Dispositions Promoting Powerful Social Studies. Making a Literature Connection: Demonstrating Powerful Attitudes and Dispositions (featurebox). Teaching Lessons in Which Students Use Integrative Thinking Skills. Using Technology: Fostering Inquiry Skills (featurebox). Creating an Environment Promoting Student Thinking in Social Studies. Using Technology: Broadcast Media and Copyright Law: What You Can and Cannot Do (featurebox). Implementing Activities that Teach Inquiry Skills. Assessing the Use of Inquiry Skills. Hierarchy of Inquiry Skills. 4. Helping Students Construct Concepts Through Conceptual Change. Concept Teaching Starts with Reflection and Practice. Facts as Social Studies Content. Forming Concepts. Types of Concepts Building on Diversity: Defining Concepts (featurebox). Interrelationships Among Concepts. Differences in Complexity and Abstractness of Concepts. Making a Literature Connection: Recognizing Its Limitations (featurebox). Building on Diversity: Cultural Factors and Concepts (featurebox). Teaching Concepts. Learning Cycle: Productive Resources. Using Technology: Examples of Resources for Helping Students Build concepts (featurebox). 5. Helping Students Use Inquiry to Build Generalizations. Development of Generalizations. Making a Literature Connection: The Message is a Generalization (featurebox). Building on Diversity: Using Resources to Support Learning a Generalization (featurebox). Characteristics of the Exploratory Introduction Phase. Characteristics of the Lesson Development Phase. Using Technology: Supporting Students' Inquiry (featurebox). Characteristics of the Expansion Phase. Formative Evaluation and the Inquiry Process. Inquiry Teaching and the National Standards in Social Studies. 6. Using Instructional Strategies That Help Students Learn. Becoming and Effective Planner of A Social Studies Program. Using Technology: Creating a Collaborative Classroom (featurebox). An Interview with Mike Yell on Cooperative Learning. A Continuum of Instruction. Matching Instructional Strategies to Students Needs. Matching Types of Instructional Activities to Each Phase of the Lesson. Make a Literature Connection: Reading Literature (featurebox). Building on Diversity: Prereading Activities (featurebox). Classroom Management for Powerful Social Studies. Using Action Research to Create More Effective Instruction. 7. Helping Students Relate to Individuals and Communities. Respect for Students and for Oneself as a Teacher. Learning Cycle: Sharing and Negotiation. Some Areas Affective the Development of Self-Concept. Making a Literature Connection: Supporting Development of Self Respect (featurebox). Values and Moral Education. Using Technology: Stimulating Discussion (featurebox). Attitudes. Building on Diversity: Learning from the Voices of our Family and Community (featurebox). 8. Helping Students Become Citizens in a Democratic Society in an Ever More Interdependent World. Defining Citizenship in a Democratic Society. Developing Political Awareness. Citizenship and Standards. Key Concepts and Values. Learning Cycle: Voting is a Way to Make Decisions. Assessing Civic Education in U.S. Schools. Resources for Citizenship Education. An Interview with a Teacher: Emily Wood. Making a Literature Connection: Selecting a Trade Book that Stresses Social Studies (featurebox). Media Resources. Law-Related Education Learning Cycle: Presidental Oath. Participating in Democracy. Using Technology: Discussions that Promote Greater Understanding through Combining and Evaluating Ideas Against Criteria (featurebox). 9. Helping All Students Experience Meaningful Social Studies. Meaningful Social Studies for All Students. Social Studies Education for Students with Disabilities. Social Studies Education in a Culturally Diverse Society. Building on Diversity: Variations in Belief Systems (featurebox). Making a Literature Connection: Role Models (featurebox). Culture and Gender Differences in Student-Teacher Interactions. Helping the English Language Learner Participate in Social Studies. Assessment of Social Studies Learning for All Students. Using Technology: Alternative Assessment. 10. Helping Students Interpret History. Definition of History. History in Schools. Learning Cycle: The First Thanksgiving in the United States. Standards for History. Benefits of Studying History. Students and the Learning of History. Using Time Lines to Develop Chronology. Resources for Teaching History. Learning Cycle: Skills in Picture Analysis Visual Literacy and History. Reenactments and Drama. Biographies and Historical Literature. Internet and Computer Resources. An Interview with Carol Thompson. Expanding Your Skills in History. 11. Helping Students Interpret the Earth and Its People Through Geography. Interview-Experiences with Billy Fitzhugh, a Second Grade Teacher. Defining Geography. Standards for Geographic Education. Learning Cycle: People Change Their Environments. Resources for Teaching Geography. Developing Geographic Concepts, Generalizations, and Skills. Helping Students Learn and Use Map and Globe Skills. 12. Helping Students Make Economic Decisions. Economic Literacy. Interview with Nancy Braden about Teaching Economics. Defining Economics. National Social Studies Standards Related to Economics. Economics Concepts and Values. Learning Cycle: Economic Interdependence. Economic Decision-Making Skills. Economic Goals and Values. Children and the Learning of Economics. Learning Cycle: Advertisements and Making Good Choices. 13. Helping Students Understand Local and Global Societies. Global Education: An Evolving Definition. Approaches to Global Education. Interdisciplinary Connections. Teaching Global Education. Teaching Strategies. Learning Cycle Unit: Teaching About War to Help Create a More Humane World. Making a Literature Connection: What are the People of the World Like? (featurebox). Resources for Teaching Global Education. Using Technology: Civics Impact of Technology Opportunities (featurebox).

Abstract: Inspired by recent developments in social theory and based on extensive archival research, this book provides the first systematic analysis of the developing knowledge capacities of the state in Victorian Canada. No government can intensively administer citizens about whom it knows nothing. The centralization of knowledge in the form of official statistics was an important dimension of state formation. The census of population was the leading project for the production of social intelligence. .The Politics of Population. provides a detailed account of the political and social context in which census-making developed in Canada. It deals with census-making as a political project, investigating its place in and impact on party politics and ethnic, religious, and sectional struggles. It also looks closely at census-making as an administrative practice, identifying the main census managers and outlining the organization of five attempts at census-making between 1842 and 1850, before following in detail how census-making finally unfolded between 1852 and 1871. Curtis examines parliamentary debate and governmental reports, but he also follows census enumerators into the field and traces how what they saw was worked up into 'official statistics.' Theoretically, the manuscript engages in a critical dialogue with work in the history of statistics, studies of state formation, social studies of scientific knowledge, and work in the field of 'governmentality.' Winner of the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, awarded by the Canadian Historical Association, and the John Porter Prize, awarded by the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association.

Abstract: This report has a state-by-state analysis of the new 1999-2002 Schools and Staffing Survey data on the percentage of core academic secondary school classes taught by a teacher without major or minor in the subject. The report documents the huge and growing problem of disproportionate numbers of classes in highpoverty and high-minority secondary schools being taught by out-of-field teachers. The report also includes a list of recommendations which states, districts and schools can act on immediately to help reduce out-of-field teaching. Comments Reprinted from Education Trust, August 2002, 14 pages. The author, Dr. Richard M. Ingersoll, asserts his right to include this material in ScholarlyCommons@Penn. This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/142 O ver the past decade, teacher quality has become one of the most widely and loudly discussed issues in education. And no problem related to teacher quality has received more attention than the unacceptably high rates of outof-field assignment in the nation’s middle schools and high schools. A solid consensus, based on research and common sense, now recognizes that secondary teachers must be knowledgeable about the subjects they teach if they are to help all students achieve high academic standards. Yet, according to a new analysis based on recently released results from the latest federal Schools and Staffing Survey, the amount of out-of-field teaching in the nation and states remains unacceptably high, with classes in high-poverty and high-minority schools much more likely to be assigned to a teacher lacking minimal academic qualifications in the subject being taught. The analysis also reveals that, while out-of-field teaching is far too pervasive at the high school level, the problem is even worse in middle schools, where very high rates of misassignment suggest a staggering disregard for whether teachers have the minimal academic foundation necessary to teach classes in core academic subject areas. Finally, the study reveals that the nation made no progress in reducing out-offield teaching between 1993-94 and 1999-2000, the year the latest survey was administered. If anything, the problem actually got somewhat worse, a change largely driven by higher rates of out-of-field teaching in the nation’s lowestincome and highest-minority schools, the very schools where students need good teaching the most desperately. What can account for the stubborn inertia behind such disappointing results? The obstacle is not a lack of agreement that there’s a problem, nor disagreement The Education Trust, August 2002 1 All Talk, No Action: Putting an End to Out-of-Field Teaching by Craig D. Jerald, The Education Trust Data Analysis by Richard M. Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania about how serious it is. National commissions, international conferences, pronouncements by national and state leaders, extensive media coverage, compelling new research evidence, stacks of reports, and buckets of political soundbites and goal-setting all have contributed to a growing sense of urgency on the topic over the past decade. Nor is the obstacle that the problem is impossible to solve. Certainly, regional labor-market shortages in some fields can exacerbate the problem. But a growing body of evidence suggests that there are plenty of teachers within the system, and potential teachers outside it, who have (or, with some initial help, could obtain) the necessary academic foundation to teach secondary-level math, science, social studies, or language arts. After all, as Richard Ingersoll—a University of Pennsylvania researcher—points out, how can shortages explain out-of-field teaching in subjects like language arts and social studies, where we have long recognized the existence of teacher surpluses? In other words, out-of-field teaching isn’t nearly as natural or inevitable as many believe. Indeed, in his 1999 State of American Education speech, speculating on why American schoolchildren fall so far behind their international peers by the time they reach the end of high school, then-Secretary of Education Riley admitted, "There is a unique American phenomena that really makes no sense—the practice of assigning teachers to teach ‘out of field.’ Foreign education ministers who visit me are just stumped when I try to explain this practice. Their translators simply have no words to describe it." What’s missing is action. Despite all of the lip service given to the problem over the past decade, most states and districts still operate as if it is acceptable to assign secondary classes in specific subjects to individuals who never studied them. Even states that claim to outlaw or discourage the practice leave plenty of loopholes through which the practice is allowed to continue. Fortunately, the new No Child Left Behind Act recognizes that the key to raising student learning and closing achievement gaps lies in access to a highly qualified teacher for all students. That new federal requirement should signal to all of us that the time for empty talk is long over. To provide every student with a qualified teacher, education leaders must take action now to put an end to the practice of assigning out-of-field teachers once and for all.

Abstract: This book brings together emerging perspectives from organization theory and management, environmental sociology, international regime studies, and the social studies of science and technology to provide a starting point for discipline-based studies of environmental policy and corporate environmental behavior.

Abstract: One of the most regularly cited articles published by this influential journal (ranked 7th in August 2007), this piece has been used as a resource by a number of researchers with young people across a range of disciplines (education, social studies, media studies), and it is cited internationally as an authoritative source on addressing the methodological challenges of researching ethically and competently with young people. Based on the lessons from one particular collaborative research project, it makes a major contribution to methodological development in this area of growing research interest and activity.

Abstract: Comprehensive, then, are the future scenarios presented (second part of the report), in which the Board focuses on three instruments: integrated evaluation models, scenario techniques, and regional information systems, for use in achieving the required advances in fundamental knowledge and social and technological capacities. All that will be lacking then is the political will – and it (typically American?) is simply presupposed: sustainability, it is claimed, can be achieved within two generations (that is, by the year 2050 or so). A good part of the argumentation is devoted to environmental risks, with environmental reporting experiencing a positive reassessment: it is, the authors argue, necessary to come to a rapid consensus on indicators of success or failure, above all because they are at present not yet available, at least not in consensual form. Indicators on global, planetary systems, on regional and sectoral vulnerability, and on local stocks of robust systems are set out here as necessary categories. If and to the extent that we must aim for sustainability by means of trial and error, through social experimentation, we find ourselves in need of strategies and institutions that link imperfect knowledge, flexible management, and social learning. The highlights of the report’s most absorbing chapter may be indicated in keywords: developing a science of sustainability; preparing for emergency action; doubling and multiplying material and energy efficiency; advancing regional and local implementation strategies... Conducted in Europe, a sustainability discourse would be likely to include more concrete categories of steps and targets: reduction, phase-out, phase-in, for instance. And it would tend more to be an analysis of constraints than options. That, after all, distinguishes Europeans from Americans. But Americans are also aware of their responsibility: ‘There is no precedent for the ambitious enterprise of mobilising science and technology to ensure a transition to sustainability. Nevertheless, the United States has a special obligation to join and help guide the journey’ (p. 14). Exactly so , as the US not only has a robust, powerful, scientific and technical capacity, it is also one of the greatest consumers of scarce global resources; and sustainably organised communities and cities, Agenda 21 processes, are still a rare phenomenon in the US. So modesty where it is appropriate, resolution where it is called for. A readable, a stimulating, visionary report on our, as the title rightly puts it, common journey to sustainability.

Abstract: United States Department of the Interior National Park Service D"ZG 2 11990" National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form NATIONAL REGISTER This form is for use in documenting multiple property groups relating to one or several historic contexts. See instructions in Guidelines tor Completing National Register Forms (National Register Bulletin 16). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the requested information. For additional space use continuation sheets (Form 10-900-a). Type all entries.

Abstract: Classroom discussion is an important teaching strategy because of its relation to the development of participatory citizenship, critical thinking, Discussion is particularly relevant in social studies education because of the mandate to prepare students for participatory democracy. Sev-have examined the distinctive nature of discussion itself. Those studies indicate that there are various types of discussion that vary in purpose, content, and format. In this article the author begins a look at two general \" types \" of discussion in schools: classroom discussion¾where face-to-face verbal interactions occur among students and teacher¾and threaded electronic discussion¾where the interactions occur electronically and asynchro-nously by way of a computer. Interest in this topic stems from the possibility that threaded discussions may be a promising format for discussing public issues in the classroom. Merry Merryfield (2000) provided several advantages that threaded discussions have over other electronic discussion formats (e.g., list serves, chat rooms). Merryfield suggested that threaded discussions are advantageous because they are linked to a course homepage, the instructor can control the structure of the discussions, and the \" postings \" provide a searchable database of student comments and interactions. While electronic threaded discussions are not commonplace in social studies classrooms, the technology needed to facilitate such discussions is not new or expensive. Still, examples of students engaging in threaded electronic discussions are hard to find in schools.

Abstract: Visual images within social studies textbooks need to be actively “read” by students. Drawing on literature from cultural studies, this article suggests three instructional conditions for teaching students to read visual texts. Agency implies that readers have the (1) authority, (2) opportunity and capacity, and (3) community for engaging in the task of reading in multiple ways. Seven ways of reading images are outlined—instrumental, narrative, iconic, editorial, indicative, oppositional, and reflexive—and are illustrated with instructional questions.

Abstract: Social studies educators have long promoted inquiry learning as a valuable method of instruction. Specifically, research into the use of inquiry methods in the teaching and learning of history has demonstrated that this method has much to offer. Recently, the use of technological tools, including the Internet, has received attention as a means of transforming social studies instruction. This case study of a sixth grade classroom investigates the integration of the inquiry learning method and the Internet medium through the WebQuest approach. Three findings are presented and discussed: 1) students have differing perceptions of the value of Internet sources and print sources, but many find print sources preferable to Internet sources; 2) students' strategies for gathering and organizing information are initially characterized by a quest for the ‘Path-of-Least-Resistance,’ but the teacher can successfully guide students to more productive approaches; and 3) students of varying academic ability levels can conduct inquiry-oriented investigations, but they approach and perceive the value of such investigations differently.

Abstract: (2002). To Promote Character Education, Use Literature for Children and Adolescents. The Social Studies: Vol. 93, No. 3, pp. 113-116.

Abstract: To examine how analyses and visions of American society shape the appeal of progressive pedagogy, this article focuses on the evolution of political and educational ideas among African-American civil rights activists who created alternative schools for Black children in the 1960s and 1970s. Activists developed, abandoned, recreated, and again abandoned open-ended, progressive approaches to the study of social and political life. The curricular shifts mirrored sea changes in the broader African-American freedom struggle. Rarely have Americans demanded with such insistence that education serve democratic purposes. The article concludes that support for progressive pedagogy depends on the expectation that students will be able to participate fully in the promise of civic life. The history of the freedom and liberation schools developed by Black activists suggests that no curricular project can fundamentally transform knowledge and its distribution if it is not part of a process of transforming social relatio...

Abstract: This case study involving three social studies teachers illustrates how the personal theorizing process, conducted as part of the teachers' preservice education, influenced their instruction during their first year of teaching. In addition, the evolution of the teachers' beliefs, as described through their personal practical theories (PPT's) of teaching, is depicted. The findings indicate that all three teachers attempted to utilize their PPT's to guide instruction. Only two of the three teachers, however, were able to demonstrate teaching practices that strongly represented their PPT's. The findings also illustrate the connectivity among each teacher's PPT's and how their PPT's were influenced by the new instructional setting, their interpretations regarding life experiences, and their interpretations regarding new experiences as first-year teachers.

Abstract: Unfortunately, our studies suggest that such confused student responses are common. Even when the comments come closer to the mark, students clearly have difficulty making sense of their social studies textbooks—little wonder, for these textbooks often lack explanations and connections among ideas and events (Beck, McKeown, & Gromoll, 1989; Beck, McKeown, Sinatra, & Loxterman, 1991; McKeown & Beck, 1990; McKeown, Beck, Sinatra, & Loxterman, 1992).

Abstract: (2002). Challenging Students with the Tools of Critical Thinking. The Social Studies: Vol. 93, No. 6, pp. 257-261.

Abstract: The use of children's literature in urban social studies classrooms to facilitate students' engagement in literate behaviors and simultaneously develop a framework for understanding social action is an under -researched area. This paper discusses the use of literature for children and young adults in an urban middle school language arts and social studies block as a pedagogical strategy to facilitate understandings of social action. The African American students' responses to literature supported a development of a working definition of social action and ideas about action/inaction in their urban community contexts. These issues and others offer guidance for how literature can be used as an extension of citizenship education with the development of critical consciousness, political identity, and social action as the objectives.

Abstract: ecause adolescents have difficulty B comprehending their textbooks, the International Reading Association established an Adolescent Literacy Commission in 1999 to address the problem. The commission issued a position statement in which it urged all teachers of middle and secondary school students to include reading comprehension instruction in all content areas (Moore et al. 2000). Researchers have found that when students enter the middle school grades, they are generally not proficient in reading the abstract materials found in textbooks (Chambliss and Calfee 1998; Greenleaf et al. 2001). Because they have particular difficulty understanding their social studies textbooks, middle school students do not comprehend the complex and abstract nature of concepts, facts, and generalizations that those materials encompass. Relying heavily on expository organizational patterns, the authors of social studies textbooks make strong cognitive demands on middle school students. In

Abstract: A growing number of educational programs seek to promote young people's participation in political and civic affairs. A common strategy for doing so is to provide students with opportunities to make a difference in their communities. Much research demonstrates a strong connection between a person's sense about making a difference efficacy and the level of participation. Ten nationally recognized programs that engaged students in community-based experiences and aimed to develop students' civic and political commitments were studied for over two years. By drawing on observations, interviews, and pre/post surveys that focused on changes in attitudes related to civic participation, the study was able to contextualize students' sense of efficacy as civic actors and its relation to program goals. This paper explores two common assumptions about developing a sense of civic and political efficacy: (1) when students' sense of efficacy grows, their commitment to future civic involvement grows as well; and (2) conversely, when students become frustrated or come to believe that problems are intractable, their commitment appears to decline (data supported these suppositions). Evidence presented indicated that complex questions surround the desirability of structuring curriculum to promote students' sense of their political and civic efficacy. The findings indicate that opportunities for civic and political efficacy can support the development of stronger commitments; but opportunities for students to learn about and experience the barriers and constraints they and other civic actors face are also important. The paper suggests ways programs might navigate dilemmas faced by practitioners who seek to structure experiences so students can gain a sense of efficacy on one hand, and an understanding of serious obstacles to democratic social change on the other. (Contains 8 notes, 3 tables, and 28 references.) (Author/BT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. The Limits of Efficacy: Educating Citizens for a Democratic Society Joseph Kahne, Mills College Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa

Abstract: Consideration of the role of the social sciences in capacity building in ocean and coastal management is grouped into four main themes. The first part of the paper deals with the nature and record of the social sciences in studies both of and related to coastal management. The major fields are treated in turn, and include psychology, social anthropology, sociology, politics, economics, archaeology geography and history. Wider inter-relationships among these subject disciplines are also discussed, together with relationships with other fields of knowledge, especially the natural sciences. The second section deals with ocean and coastal management itself, viewed on two levels, namely, the technical management level concerned primarily with the physical interactions between human activities on the one hand, and the natural environment on the other; and the general management level which focuses mainly on decision-making, the nature of the organisations involved, and related policy and planning matters. The third theme is concerned with the specifics of how the social sciences feed into the capacity building processes, ranging from conventional discipline-based education, especially at tertiary level; through applied short courses for practitioners at all levels of management. The roles of the differing organisations involved are considered, together with technical developments, for example, in information technology. Finally, a number of issues are raised which arise from the preceding discussion. These include an assessment of the overall contribution of the social sciences at an academic level; the nature of social science applications in a management context; and relationships with capacity building processes.

Abstract: This paper recognizes newspapers, the world over, as useful tools for promoting literate communities. Because of their invaluable functions of informing, educating, entertaining and constructively bringing the activities of the government nearer to the people, newspapers are now very popular and common with adults and young alike. Newspapers are veritable tools for promoting literacy through reading, writing and dialogues (among readers and critics), which are the hallmarks of effective and efficient use of language. Newspapers have a built-in capacity to motivate readers. As a result, it is the common practice in most parts of the country to have people congregate around newspapers stands and vendors every morning reading and discussing the contents of the newspapers. Newspapers can thus promote critical thinking, retention of information, problem solving and questioning of information source. This paper is an account of an on-going study regarding the effectiveness and noneffectiveness of English medium newspapers for facilitating literacy empowerment. Given the need to exploit the enormous resources of newspapers, as vehicles for facilitating literacy empowerment among literate communities, this paper suggests steps that can be taken by newspaper publishers, members of the Nigerian education orchestra and the Nigerian polity in appropriating the catalytic role of the newspaper as an instrument for promoting literate communities in Nigeria. Our experience in using newspapers to enhance integrative writing and reading in language arts, social studies, science and mathematics in the formal set-ups in our communities will be shared in the paper.

Abstract: Schools and colleges of education have been criticized for not adequately preparing preservice teachers to integrate technology in their future classrooms. It has been proposed that a central component in the preparation of preservice teachers is for the instructors of content methods courses to model strategies for integrating technology that enhance learning. Mason et al's (2000) “Guidelines for Using Technology to Prepare Social Studies Teachers” (CUFA Technology Guidelines) were developed specifically for social studies educators and are premised on the belief that one role of social studies educators is to model appropriate uses of technology for preservice teachers. This article presents results of a research study that investigated the characteristics of a social studies methods instructor whose practice was guided by the CUFA Technology Guidelines. In particular, this article describes how the instructor's constructivist philosophical beliefs influenced her integration of technology as en...

Abstract: (2002). Taming the Text: Engaging and Supporting Students in Social Studies Readings. The Social Studies: Vol. 93, No. 4, pp. 149-158.

Abstract: George Richardson's thoughtfully conceived and written study The Death of the Good Canadian is timely. Dealing with questions that are—or should be—at the forefront of curricular and pedagogical practice, it serves in an exemplary way to invite the reader to engage in hermeneutic conversation, but as Benhabib suggests it should, i n some unsettling ways. Unsettling because Richardson's announcement of the "death" of certain forms of cultural and national markers of identity signals a loss of innocence or naïveté about questions of purposes for social studies i n the schools. The "current present," to use Jameson's (2002, p. 214) phrase, wi th its seeming newness and complexity, challenges as wel l taken-for-granted representations of social and cultural realities. A s Richardson suggests, claims of a coherent and unitary form of national identity are being challenged by "the claims of culture" (Benhabib, 2002) for legitimate recognition and for inclusion in the curriculum of public schools. In the province where I work, Alberta, the social studies curriculum is currently under revision. A m o n g the contentious issues that the writers of the new program are struggling with is how to represent cultural identity as a focus of social studies teaching and learning. Failure to come to some consensus about what a curriculum should or should not include in terms of representing culture—whose culture and what should be emphasized—in part led to the demise of efforts to develop a common curriculum for the western provinces and territories. However, the difficulties inherent i n developing curriculum around concepts like identity and difference have not eased with restricting the territorial scope. Alberta itself has become, as a recent Globe and Mail newspaper series highlighted, one the four areas of Canada characterized by increasing ethnocultural diversity. A n d yet cultural difference sits uneasily, if at all , as a commonplace of curricular and pedagogic practice. Richardson's account of his conversations wi th four high school social studies teachers attests to how teachers' o w n convictions about purpose and identity frame—ambiguously, to use the term that figures prominently i n Richardson's work—their o w n inter-

Abstract: Proponents of community service programs often claim that such programs succeed in educating youth for democratic citizenship where traditional civics instruction falls short. Yet it is not clear that all service programs envision such citizenship as linked to political engagement and participation. It is hypothesized that only service programs that frame service within a wide political context and offer opportunities for public action increase political engagement as measured by feelings of civic obligation. This citizenship framework may likewise be incorporated in traditional social studies classes with similar effects. This hypothesis is confirmed using panel data comparing the effects of different high school service programs and social studies courses. Path analysis, analyzing a subsample of students in a particularly effective service program, shows that political socialization effects remain even when accounting for self-selection processes.