As my good pal Pooh might have exclaimed in a moment of angst,
this book bothers me. At times, I am not sure which eyes I should
be using. If I read the volume as a social studies teacher educator,
I am bothered by its apparent narrowness and lack of a well articulated
and broadly based research grounding. On the other hand, if I read
it as an elementary practitioner, I can see the practicality of a
system that is based upon tried and true practice. Nonetheless, even
in this view, I am bothered by the personal and professional power
and strength of the authors and concerned that other elementary teachers
may be unable to replicate the design model and, therefore, be unable
to achieve the desired success.
What is proposed in Social Studies at the Center is not new.
Advocating an integrated curriculum with social studies at the hub
of a wheel of learning is not a particularly novel concept. In this
day of first language mastery, second (and even third) language acquisition,
mathematics and sciences orientations and renewed calls for more physical
education programs to accompany the academic stream, elementary educators
are hard pressed to focus upon and target the social studies. While
the authors' message may be a sympathetic clarion call for the social
studies to command a centrist curriculum place, the hard reality of
the contemporary curriculum landscape may dictate other priorities.
Essentially, Lindquist and Selwyn present their own practical planning
template which they aptly term "the curriculum disk". Clearly
modelling Dewey's notions of self-reflection and reflective practice
over time, these two elementary practitioners have developed a specific,
personal, and particular learning model that emphasizes the social
studies and integrates the other acknowledged disciplines within this
centering orientation.
According to the authors, the curriculum disk is a planning wheel
whose central purpose is to help teachers design and organize integrated
curriculum units with social studies as the key and overarching discipline.
There are seven 'R' components that make up this planning scheme epitomized
by the action verbs read, respond, research, represent, react, reflect
and relate. The authors are careful to note that teachers may begin
with any one of the planning verbs, may well spend more time on certain
ones than others, and at all times are to make the pupils themselves
part of the active learning processes that are advocated.
Social Studies at the Center begins with an introductory chapter,
light on research but heavy on practice, that attempts to situate
the broad discipline defined as social studies at the center of the
elementary curriculum. Following chapters detail the curriculum disk
organizing model and offer explicit classroom directions on how the
curriculum design was carried out with classes. Samples of teacher
planning as well as examples of students' work illustrate the overall
planning-learning processes in action. The last two chapters of the
book deal with anticipated questions/answers as well as suggested
Internet resources for the social studies.
When all is said and done, Social Studies at the Center is
a rather weak and narrowly focused volume. Based almost entirely on
the practical experiences of a couple of well-intentioned and no doubt
effective elementary classroom teachers, the central curriculum wheel
planning model that is advocated suggests that teachers make major
curriculum planning decisions. While such serious curriculum decisions
might well be within the scope of experienced practitioners, they
certainly would flounder on the political shoals of local school boards,
and furthermore, are not even on the radar screens of beginning teachers.
The volume is too 'preachy'! There is no fault or problem that cannot
be overcome if the advocated curriculum disk model is adopted. Conventional
wisdom such as "planning is the crux to good social studies teaching"
(p. 32) too often appears to trivialize the complex and intertwined
processes of adult-child-discipline classroom interaction. The overriding
tone of the volume seems to suggest that all will be well as long
as the curriculum planning disk model is faithfully followed.
While one may applaud the particular professional viewpoints that
emerge over time from the classroom environment, this has to be balanced
against the possibilities of replication and improvement in a myriad
of situations involving many kinds of children interacting with various
classroom practitioners. While the general planning model advocated
in Social Studies at the Center clearly works for the two authors,
its general applicability to a larger professional audience of experienced
practitioners and/or to neophyte beginners is questionable.