ABSTRACT
A bank of windows along one wall lets in the sunshine; when several children complain that the room is too warm, Dehea Smith opens a window and a breeze moves through the room. This chapter focuses on doing disciplined, reflective inquiry in the context of an integrated social studies unit. It begins with a common third-grade social studies topic, “communities,” which often becomes little more than the “community helpers”. Dehea wanted her students to understand some of the ways in which conflict shaped their community. The conflict over what responsibility the local government had in preserving both history and the natural environment seemed one possibility. Dehea has to align her curriculum with state and local mandates that define the goal of social studies as developing “contributing and knowledgeable citizens” who “understand and apply the content and concepts of the subdisciplines” of the field in their role as citizen.
