Social Studies Standards and Early Childhood Education

Alaska Department of Education & Early Development

The Alaska Social Studies Standards and Early Childhood Education

The Alaska Social Studies Standards should be the basis of the curriculum for students of all ages. It is especially critical that preschool and primary-age children be given instruction in the social studies, for these are the ages when the foundations of good citizenship and critical thinking are laid. At the same time, students from ages 3 to 8 require special attention to a balance between content and process, and a recognition that they will exhibit a wide range of individual variation in interest and ability. Because of this, preschool and primary teachers may find that some Alaska Social Studies Standards are beyond the abilities and interests of their students. For example, Government/ Citizenship Standard 2, Key Element 7 states, "A student who meets this performance goal should be able to distinguish between constitution-based ideals and the reality of American political and social life." Most teachers would be hard-pressed to apply this standard to preschoolers beyond an awareness or readiness level. Nonetheless, taking into account this and a few similar exceptions, the Alaska Social Studies Standards offer the necessary balance between content and process, and can be the basis of an excellent early childhood curriculum.

The Alaska Social Studies Standards can be valuable tools in adapting district curriculum to the needs of young students. During a consultation with Alaska Department of Education & Early Development staff and with Alaska teachers, early childhood educator Jan Jewett noted,

It is up to us as classroom teachers to work with the standards to decide how to structure experiences so the child both recognizes the concept and is able to extend it beyond his or her own life. Then more globally, how do we move it from child to child, from child to classroom, from child to school community, and on out into the world? I think that is the challenge: for us to interpret the standards so this will happen.

To the general guidelines defined by the National Association for Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE), Jewett added the following comments specific to social studies curriculum for very young students (excerpted from the transcript of the meeting):

For young children social studies should take place in the here and now. Children at the preschool/primary age levels are entering school or group settings with pre-operational kinds of thinking and moving into concrete operational thinking. In both of those cases they are limited to understandings that are based on their experience and their interactions and observations with other people. They are not yet at the point where they are really able to act on or actively think about or work on abstract ideas.
The concept of the "expanding community" curriculum is still with us. However, people who have interpreted that approach haven't really done justice to the potential for the learning processes that are inherent in this approach. We don't want to trivialize it; we want to make sure this concept includes the necessary parts of relationship thinking, children's ability to generalize from their experience to broader experiences through symbolic or dramatic play.
Another trend in social studies curriculum was the "social living" curriculum. But the "social living" curriculum has sometimes allowed teachers to simply say, "Children need to work things out and so I give them lots of opportunities to play and interact." And that is what they do, without having it linked to more complex kinds of social studies concepts.
I've seen cases where people will [inappropriately] take the standards for the 8 to 10 year old and merely simplify them to something a 5-year old can do. I would liken that to trying to build the second story of a house before you have built the foundation. It is possible that many of the content topics which appear in the 8 to 10-year old and higher levels may not be appropriate for the preschoolers and primary grade students. It may be sensible instead to expect these young students merely to be "aware" and "familiar" with some of the ideas and standards.
We need to give children opportunities to develop as whole people, to relate their social studies types of experiences to their own knowledge, skills, and attitudes. I would recommend that a guideline focus on ongoing daily processes that affect young children's lives. One of these is conflict. They have to learn to deal with conflict, how to experience and accept it, and how to resolve it.
Early childhood is also the time to make sure the prerequisites for various social studies concepts are developed. For instance, before learning to share, a child needs to understand ownership, and so should have experiences owning something himself or herself.
I think interdependence is a really important concept for young children to start understanding. But interdependence requires first that they reflect on the nature of interconnectedness.
I want to stress the concept of the "big ideas." For instance, there's the concept of the social unit. This leads to explorations of family, needs, roles, and interactions. Children could then begin thinking about structure, interdependence, and change.
Then there are the concepts of freedom and justice. You need to teach these concepts in a very concrete fashion so kids feel and experience them. The whole process of connecting personal experiences of freedom and justice with freedom in government takes maybe four or five years, but it should start in preschool.
In terms of social studies skills, alongside problem solving, decision making, organizing, and evaluating information, I would add an understanding of cause and effect. This is an important part of conflict resolution.
I want to stress also that emotions play a crucial role in the successful use of all these skills.

Those interested in exploring early childhood curriculum development and theory with the Alaska Social Studies Standards are directed to the Guidelines for Appropriate Curriculum Content and Assessment in Programs Serving Children Ages 3 Through 8 (adopted November 1990) in the Reference Kit that accompanies this document.

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