ABSTRACT
Education in its broadest sense, is the means of this social continuity in life . (Dewey, 1916, p. 3)
A major educational goal is to transmit culture or a way of life to young children. Social studies helps them to gain the knowledge, skill, attitudes, and values that are required to persevere in society. It focuses on people and their interactions with others and the whole environment to impart a way of life, while at the same time it builds the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values children need to change and improve their way of life. Social studies embraces all disciplines from the social science fi eld. Everything concerning the nature of people and the world, the heritage of the past, and all of contemporary living is considered to be social studies (Seefeldt et al., 2009). The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS, 2008a), the most prevalent professional organization for social studies educators in the world, describes social studies as:
the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Within the school program, social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences. The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world (p. 6).
