Search results

Common Core State Standards Initiative mandates increased readings of informational texts within English Language Arts starting in elementary school. Accurate, age-appropriate, and engaging content is at the center of effective social studies teaching. Textbooks and children’s literature—both literary and informational—are prominent in elementary classrooms because of the esoteric nature of primary source material. Many research projects have investigated historical accuracy and representation within textbooks, but few have done so with children’s trade books. We examined children’s trade books centered on three historical figures frequently incorporated within elementary school curricula: Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Helen Keller. Findings revealed various forms of historical misrepresentation and differing levels of historicity. Reporting such lacunae is important for those involved in curricular decisions. We believe children’s books, even those with historical omissions and misrepresentations, provide an unique opportunity for students to incorporate and scrutinize diverse perspectives as they actively assemble historical understandings. All secondary narratives, even historically representative children’s books, can benefit from primary source supplementation. We guide teachers interested in employing relevant and rich primary source material.

During the 1930s Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal created a wide range of spending and loan programs. Brief descriptions are provided for the programs created by the New Deal and loan and spending programs that were in place before the New Deal. I worked with others to create a panel data set with estimates of the spending and lending by the programs each year from 1930 through 1940. The data aggregated to broad categories are reported here and the methods and sources used to construct the estimates of the spending and lending for the categories are discussed.

Examines Laughlin Currie's experiences in helping to implement the New Deal, a new monetary system of Roosevelt's administration implemented during the 1930s.

Introduces the special issue to mark the 10th anniversary of Lauchlin Currie's death. Currie was an economist described as the intellectual leader of the spending wing of Roosevelt's New Deal.

Comparative administrative study lacks agreed‐upon concepts for cross‐national analysis. This essay suggests “administrative culture” as a useful concept which has been overshadowed by two related concepts, “organizational culture” and “political culture.” The American experience is highlighted in its public personnel dimension and administrative sub‐cultures are introduced to characterize the enormous diversity of values, beliefs, and attitudes in the public sector. An evolutionary perspective is used to show change over time from the earliest “Government by Gentlemen” period to the current emphasis upon merit, modified by affirmative action and demands for accountability, flexibility, and entrepreneurial behavior. Sources of administrative culture are also discussed to reveal the unique origins of the system which, nevertheless, has been exported to numerous other nation‐states.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings from a study that explored the use of art and visual production as a means through which 20 third-graders developed and represented their social studies understandings. The author describes the ways the process of visual production and the finished products illustrate the nature of the students' social studies learning.

The project was grounded in an inductive qualitative approach privileging student voice. This paper reports analysis and interpretation of multiple data sources, including photographs of students' projects, digital recordings of the visual productions and student interviews, as well as field notes and informal teacher conversations.

Results suggest that in the process of visual production and in their final pieces, students moved in fluid ways between making sense of new knowledge, developing important social studies skills, and representing their knowledge. More specifically, students used historical evidence to present humanized versions of history through personalized narratives. These outcomes suggest that the integration of art and visual production can be a valuable and effective way for students to develop and apply social studies skills as well as represent their understanding.

This study provides insight into how young children can use art and visual production to develop social studies skills, make sense of new knowledge, and represent their learning, contributing knowledge on an understudied topic and population in social studies education.

Presents the monthly estimates of the Federal Government in the USA from 1932‐1937. States that in 1937 the contribution has declined below the levels of the other recent years, reflecting in part a decrease in expenditures but more largely an increase in tax receipts. Investigates how the contribution was measured and its significance. Examines the significance of the 1937 decline in contribution and proposes that there may be a decrement to buying power in the first half of 1938.

Presents an interview conducted in 1981 by London Weekend Television with Lauchlin Currie on the Great Depression of the 1930s in the USA, which contains his own suggested questions and answers.

A YEAR AGO, NEVER WAS HEARD THE discouraging “R” word. But “recession” is on everybody's lips these days. For good reason. Asian economies are crippled and show no signs of regaining their agility in the near term; Russia's is in almost complete disarray. And the U.S. stock market, dominated for years by rampaging bulls, is reflecting worries that the malaise afflicting the East will prove contagious, as well as the realization that earnings growth rates no longer justify high stock prices.

In this space I complement an article published earlier in Social Studies Research and Practice 8(1), 2012 by providing a wise practice lesson and its ancillary materials. As sophisticated technologies continue to immerse modern students in potent visual data, teachers should help students develop equally potent visual literacy skills. Students who are more visually literate are better prepared to evaluate the visual messages surrounding them and act, not in rote-response visual stimuli, but rather according to their well-informed conscience. The lesson shared here demonstrates the educative potential of employing visual documents, historical photographs, in an inquiry-based approach to social studies instruction. Together, the coupled articles present a pragmatic example of academic research informing classroom practice in meaningful ways to promote students’ civic competence.