rationales

Discussing the Rationales of Why We Teach Social Studies
In small groups we are going to reflect on your readings and consider some of the rationales for teaching social studies. A rationale is the reason behind why we teach what we teach and how we teach. This discussion activity could be done as a paper pass activity. If there are 4 questions, each question is recorded on a paper. Each group receives one of the papers. The group discusses and responds to the question and records their thoughts on the paper. At the end of the discussion time (determined by questions) the groups are asked to pass their paper to the next group. Now the next question is examined, previous groups' responded are read and group adds/builds on these ideas. Activity continues until each group has responded to all questions.

However - we are going to do this as a wiki activity to allow you to explore the power of a wiki for group collaboration, editing and also be able to examine and refer to all responses when the activity is completed. Rationale 1 - Social Initiation Rationale (below)  Rationale 2  Rationale 3 Rationale 4

__**Rationale 1 - Social Initiation Rationale:**__ //The Social Initiation rationale sees the primary purpose of social studies is to initiate students into society by transmitting the understandings, abilities and values that students will require if they are to fit into and be productive members of society.// -**This rationale is very important because it helps students learn how to be productive members of society -One of the reasons society is able to function is because we teach students how to be productive members of society -Students learn about history and they learn from mistakes that were made in the past -Who's society are we talking about? Who determines these values? -Are we learning about our own society or global society? -Are these values referring to white Caucasian values? This rationale needs to be more specific -Each individual and community is different -This rationale is saying that passing down knowledge is the best way to prepare students for society, it should consider developing student skills and relating information to students own life -The teacher's values are usually the values being taught -The hidden meaning is conformity. Conforming is required to be successful with this rationale. -It is implying that the students will not be successful if they do not conform. -Society does not benefit because there will be no critical thinkers and no change.
 * Critique this rationale and respond. What questions arise as you read this rationale?