ABSTRACT
The American Political Science Association's (APSA) main goal in issuing eight important reports, recommendations, and statements, as well as its related activities in the area of pre-collegiate citizenship education, was to bring the social studies curriculum into conformity with its conceptions of citizenship. Since the reports, recommendations, and statements were issued in different phases of the evolution of political science, they reflect the APSA's changing and inconsistent perspectives on what knowledge was of most worth for citizenship. After the Second World War, Behavioralism replaced Traditionalism as the dominant paradigm in political science. The Committee on Instruction in Government (CIG) introduced the APSA and tried to make a case for fostering instruction in government in secondary schools. The 1916 report introduced a brand-new course for high school seniors: Problems of Democracy—Economic, Social, and Political (POD). The CCNCSS asserted that citizenship education was a direct function of the state.
