What is Social Studies?

Definition

Social studies is the study of individuals, communities, systems, and their interactions across time and place that prepares students for local, national, and global civic life.

Purpose

Using an inquiry-based approach, social studies helps students examine vast human experiences through the generation of questions, collection and analysis of evidence from credible sources, consideration of multiple perspectives, and the application of social studies knowledge and disciplinary skills. As a result of examining the past, participating in the present, and learning how to shape the future, social studies prepares learners for a lifelong practice of civil discourse and civic engagement in their communities. Social studies centers knowledge of human rights and local, national, and global responsibilities so that learners can work together to create a just world in which they want to live.

Disciplines and Courses

At the elementary level, social studies includes the interdisciplinary study of history, geography, economics, and government/civics and is well-integrated with the study of language arts, the visual and performing arts, and STEM.

At the secondary level, students engage in social studies through singular, disciplinary lenses as well as interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary ones.

States, districts, and schools use various names to identify the disciplines, fields, and subjects of a comprehensive social studies education. As such, creating an all-inclusive list of subject and course titles is almost impossible. Fundamentally, social studies courses include those that study the array of human experiences and the spaces in which we interact as humans.

Social studies can include but is not limited to, disciplines and courses such as:

• History, including local and state history, United States history, world history and global studies, African American history, and women’s history as well as other courses about the history of specific groups, regions, and eras; 
• Geography, including physical, environmental, cultural, and human geography as well as courses related to the application of geographic tools (i.e. GPS and GIS); 
• Economics, including general economics, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and international economics; 
• Government and Citizenship, including civics, citizenship education, political science, local, state, tribal, and United States government, international relations, comparative government, and law and legal studies; 
• Social Sciences, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, gender studies, LGBTQ+ studies, and religious studies; 
• Ethnic Studies, including African American studies, Asian American and Pacific Islander studies, Indigenous studies, and Latin American studies; 
• Human Rights and Social Justice, including human rights education, social justice issues, international organizations, and genocide studies; 
• Financial Literacy, including personal finance (NCSS recognizes financial literacy as an important course for students, but financial literacy is distinct from and is not a replacement for economics and economic education); and 
• Contemporary Issues, including courses in current events and the study of one or more social studies topics in current contexts.