SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS PROFESSIONAL

As various institutions, groups, and individuals struggle over the power to determine quality teacher preparation, each successive wave of reform influences not just the structural characteristics of teacher education, but also the range of norms, values, and ideas possible within teacher education and about social studies education. The persistent framing of teacher preparation as a “problem” has led to efforts to further regulate the curriculum of teacher education, increase the surveillance of programs through public accountability, introduce new content, dispositional, and performance assessments, and create new licensure routes that bypass traditional preparation pathways. The last decade has featured a steady stream of blistering critiques from government agencies, education advocacy groups, and the media lamenting the quality of teacher preparation. Although many of the trends that were emerging in 2002, such as InTASC, continue to influence the preparation of teachers, the most palpable change is the more critical stance that the public has adopted toward teacher education. While the 2016 committee continued the efforts of previous committees, the five standards and twenty-one elements found in this document are also responsive to the contemporary demands placed upon social studies teacher preparation programs. Most notably, the 2002 standards were influenced by the 1994 NCSS document, Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, which described what NCSS expected pre-K-12 learners should know and be able to do through ten thematic standards (NCSS, 1994).

The shift was predicated on trends in 2002 that guided conversations around social studies and teacher preparation, such as the national move toward greater accountability for schools, teachers, and teacher education programs, efforts by state teacher licensure offices, the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC), the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and other subject matter professional teacher associations. The twenty standards articulated in the 2002 edition focused the efforts of social studies teacher education on the ability of candidates to demonstrate subject matter knowledge and perform professionally. Whereas earlier versions focused on prescribing programmatic components (e.g., coursework), the 19 standards represented a shift in emphasis. The last set of standards was released in 2002. Backgroundįor several decades, the National Council for the Social Studies has published standards for the preparation of social studies teachers. The standards outline the social studies content, pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed in order to prepare ambitious social studies teachers. This document consists of two sections: (1) an introduction, which contains, in addition to this overview, information about the background and contexts in which the standards were developed, a description of the audiences to which the standards are addressed, and the general framework that guided the construction of the standards and (2) the standards themselves with a supporting rationale. These standards were approved by the NCSS Board of Directors in March, 2016. The National Standards for the Preparation of Social Studies Teachers describe and explain the national standards for social studies teacher education created by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS).

SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS PROFESSIONAL

Social studies standards