ABSTRACT
Social studies teachers in the era of national Common Core literacy and math standards, high-stakes standardized assessments for students, more rigorous but questionable assessments for teachers, and demands that all students be college and career ready can feel pulled in a number of different directions. This chapter introduces different types of goals and objectives: broad pedagogical goals that reflect our teaching philosophies, conceptual and content goals for understanding history, and social sciences skills goals. Social studies classrooms address general academic and social skills that students need so they can process information and work with other people. In this chapter, I also discuss my goals and the educational and social studies theorists I found useful in shaping them. The chapter addresses the questions Are we teaching subject matter or students?, What is important to know and why?, How can we teach democracy?, How are goals reflected in different approaches to teaching social studies?, and Why are state standards sometimes so politicized? One important goal of social studies education on every level is promoting civic engagement. Key concepts include Common Core, concepts, democratic community, goals, inquiry, intelligence, relevance, scaffolding, skills, standards, transformative education, transmission, and understandings.
