This essay draws primarily upon Ralph Bunche's personal papers and the two most recent scholarly biographies of him (Henry, 1999; Urquhart, 1993) to analyze his formative years and what they might illuminate about the formation of character. It also places this chapter of Bunche's life within its larger historical context. Special attention is…

Historian Patricia Limerick's book, "The Legacy of Conquest" focuses on the history of American West within the context of conquest as "the historical bedrock of the whole nation" and the American West as "a preeminent case study in conquest and its consequences." To live with that legacy, contemporary Americans ought to be well informed and well…

The past decade has witnessed the development of character education efforts in many schools across America. Professional journals and the popular press abound with character education articles that explain the need, articulate the principles of practice, or recount details of schools' programs. The prominence of character education and its…

In this article, the author reflects on the current state of teaching social studies in classrooms. The author observes that it is wrong to regard the teaching of social studies as something unimportant. He also observes how the No Child Left Behind Act is exacerbating the current situation of social studies pedagogy as it only requires testing of…

Researchers analyzed the perceptions and pedagogies of educators in two Chihuahua, Mexico, public schools with regard to United States foreign policies. The key objective of the research was to provide additional insight into the impact of recent actions taken by the United States Government, including the war in Iraq. Chihuahuan educators and…

Frame analysis was used to examine how competing stakeholders framed a sixth grade curriculum controversy over whether the WWII internment of Japanese Americans should be categorized as a controversial issue. Teachers and administrators in a northwestern U.S. school claimed that the internment was clearly wrong and not controversial, but these…

Background: Children ordinarily begin their formal education at the age when the great majority of them are capable of understanding the role of addition and subtraction in changing number. In determining critical differences they can apply the oddity principle--the first "pure" abstraction that children ever develop--understanding that…

When an instructor reframed the social studies methods course to include a service-learning project, both education certification students and a museum's outreach program benefited. University students gained practical teaching experience leading a children's summer class about local prairie dogs, and the museum gained quality teachers.…

The authors focus on the collaboration between a university methods professor and two classroom teachers in teaching social studies methods as a way of bridging the gap between university preparation for teaching social studies and putting that preparation into practice in elementary classrooms. The teachers offer recommendations from their own…

This paper explores how Geography's position in British Columbia (BC), Canada's school social studies curricula has been affected by changes in educational cycles over the twentieth century. The amount of instructional time, the importance assigned to the subject and the content of the subject have varied in accordance with the pre-eminence given…

There is nothing worse than hearing moans and groans when writing time is announced to students. Motivation for writing begins when students' interests are mixed with opportunities for creativity. This article presents an idea shared by a writing coach who found a way to spark students' interest in writing by developing recipes for more…

A new computerised testing system was used at home to promote learning and also to save classroom instruction time. The testing system combined the features of short-answer and multiple-choice formats. The questions of the multiple-choice problems were presented without the options so that students had to generate answers for themselves; they…

In this response to Kevin St. Jarre's article "Reinventing Social Studies", the author agrees with St. Jarre that the social studies curriculum needs to change. However, he stresses that the improvement process will not be easy. Creating university social science and social studies courses that would prepare secondary teachers with the knowledge…

This article reports the results of a study about the factors that affect social studies development in Jordan's secondary schools. An evaluation of data obtained within the limitations of this study relative to the development of social studies education, in particular, and education, in general, indicates that the principle of the Great Arab…

Teaching mixed methods research is difficult. This longitudinal explanatory study examined how two classes were designed, taught, and evaluated. Curriculum, Research, and Teaching (EDCS-606) and Mixed Methods Research (EDCS-780) used a research proposal generation process to highlight the importance of the purpose, research question and…