Foundations of Social Studies

1st Semester | 1SEDS-B | Prelims | PPT, Module, and Lecture Based

LESSON 1: MEANING OF SOCIAL STUDIES

What is Social Studies? Meaning of Social Studies

NCSS defines social studies as “the integrated study of the
social sciences and humanities to promote civic
competence.”
Integrated study is bringing together traditionally separate
subjects so that students can grasp a more authentic
understanding of the topic they are studying.
Civic comptence means that a combination of knowledge,
skills, attitudes and values that enable a person to perform
real-world tasks. In order to relate also to the community
itself.
Within the school program, social studies provides
coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such
disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, economics,
geography, history, law, philosophy, political science,
psychology, religion, and sociology.”
Social studies equips us with knowledge to become
involved in civic engagement.
The purpose of Social Studies Education is to help students
develop social understanding and civic competence.
SOCIAL STUDIES & SOCIAL SCIENCE
NOT
“Amalgamation of all knowledge of the arts and social
sciences, in terms of history, geography, political science
and sociology.”
• Quartey (1984) remarked that the protagonists of this
view argue that knowledge is one and indivisible and
that it is only for convenience that it has been divided
into subject compartments.
• Curriculum labelled on this view only ended up
departmentalizing knowledge by selecting assortment
of topics from the Social Sciences.
• This can only force the teachers holding this view to limit
their selection of topics related to their discipline, with
emphasis on such Topics at the neglect of other topics
unless other specialists can be found to handle other
aspects of the curriculum.
“Some other practitioners of the subject have equally
defined Social Studies as the study of the relationship
between man and his environment. As an adjunct, they it is
how man influences the environment and how the
environment influences man.”

• Quartey (1984) observes that this view has strong

Social Studies Social Science geographical and sociological connotations.
A branch of social The origin of social studies. • These standpoints present the false notion that Social
science. Studies has nothing new to offer.
All disciplines are Every discipline stands out • By presenting Social Studies in subject compartments, it
integrated into a one on its own attempts to negate the importance attached to the
space.
attainment of unity of knowledge.
Studies man in general. Studies man in a various
• Again, one cannot deny that Social Studies deals with
aspects of his life
facts derived from interpersonal and man-land
Learned at secondary Taught at higher levels of
relationship, but it is wrong to assume that it focuses on
and primary stages. education in tertiary
levels. a body of precise memorable facts about man and the
Practice part of human Theory part of human environment.
affairs. affairs • Teachers who had this perception of the subject’s
Selected portions of social Larger in scope definition, taught Social Studies purely for knowledge
sciences. acquisition
Instructional utility Social utility • This is because Social Studies is not a discipline in which
Learning stituation and Part of cultural knowledge academic selfishness is exhibited or promoted.
insights in all knowledge that have bearing on any
field

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 Foundations of Social Studies
1st Semester | 1SEDS-B | Prelims | PPT, Module, and Lecture Based

LESSON 1: MEANING OF SOCIAL STUDIES

Yes
Notable scholars have defined Social Studies in ways that
confirm the subject as a value-laden discipline.
“Frost and Rowland (1969) defined the subject as
essentially studies of human relationship, like human to
human, human to institutions, human to physical
environment and human to value systems.”
• This implies that the subject is one that encourages
attention to be given to the process of living and
working together, using of the environment to met basic
human needs, customs, institutions, values and life
situations, cultural heritage and its dynamic on-going
characteristics.
• Quartey (1984) in his own definition of Social Studies
describes the subject as a “study that equips the youth
with tools necessary in solving personal and community
related problems”.
• Thus defined, Social Studies will not mainly aim at giving
out knowledge, but it will equally emphasize on
inculcating a certain distillate knowledge which will
assist humans in acquiring the tools necessary for life.
• Such tools are knowledge, values, attitudes and skills.
These tools are expected to assist the learner in solving
both personal and community related problems.
survival, having been equipped with the necessary tools
such as values, attitudes, skills and knowledge
(Lawal,1993).
• As a social subject, it is more inter-disciplinary, more
concerned with skills development and more
normative.
• It is a field of study in which content and purpose focus
on relationships.
• It provides knowledge, attitudes, values and skills that
enable people understand better their physical and
human environments in order to act or behave as
responsible citizens.
• Its primary purpose is to help young people develop the
ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the
public good as citizens of a culturally diverse,
democratic society in an interdependent world. (NCSS,
1992)
Summary & Conclusion:
The foregoing reveals that attempts at defining Social
Studies can be fraught with misconceptions and
professional biases. However, the correct definition of Social
Studies will basically present it as a discipline that deals with
man’s problem of survival. The focus of the definition should
nevertheless not one that focuses on the problem per se but
on how to prepare man to confront such problems.

NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL STUDIES

Meaning of Social Studies for them:

“An integrated study of the social sciences and humanities

to promote civic competence and help young people
develop the ability to make informed and reasoned
decisions as citizens of culturally diverse, democratic
society in an inter dependent world. (NCSS 1992).”

Other Important Claims:

• This implies that the goal of Social Studies purely revolves

around citizenship education, education for cultural
integration and sustainable living.
• Social Studies can therefore be described as a
discipline which attempts to modify or change the
learners’ behaviors in the directions of acceptable
values and attitudes through a process of studying
human beings relationship with his or her environment
and with the desire to provide solutions to various
complementing problems in order to ensure his/her

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 Foundations of Social Studies
1st Semester | 1SEDS-B | Prelims | PPT, Module, and Lecture Based

LESSON 2: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL STUDIES

UNITED STATES not only the local community, the state and the nation, but
also the global community.

Development of social studies thoughts in the US Social Studies in the United States of America today can
therefore be said to be focusing on the reduction of,
The United States of America appeared to be the “mother” pressures, social and environmental problems which are of
country of Social Studies, and no wonder Obebe (1990), national and international concerns, with contents usually
commented that Social Studies first appeared as a drawn from a variety of discipline-interdisciplinary
curriculum of the educational system of United States of approach. Students are being taught to think globally as
America (USA) within the first two decades of the 20th they act locally.
century.
It must be noted that any society, which intends promoting
• He further remarked that although it was a stormy democratic discipline through Social Studies education,
and difficult birth, distinguished scholars like John requires individuals who are willing and able to participate
Dewey, George Counts, Edger Wesley, Harold Rugg effectively in the solution of common problems.
and Earle Rugg, were the midwives.
• Thomas Jesse who was the Chairman of National Social studies curriculum in the us 1920’s-1980’s
Education Association Committee on Social Studies
which issued its final report as part of a major review
Context Purpose of Focus of Social
of the re-organization of secondary education in
(1917) has been identified as one of the first to use
Social Studies Studies Civics
the term “Social Studies” in its present sense Social Problem
1920’s Social efficiency Citizenship Civic Social
Social Studies thought started developing in the United Progressivism education problems
States of America in the early 1900 as a reaction to the Great Social Social problems
tremendous numerous human problems prevailing at that Depression Transformation
1930s Expanding
particular period. Some of those problems may include environment
social and political problem after the civil war. curriculum
World War II Citizenship Current events
By 1921, a national association called National Council for 1940s education
Social Studies (NCSS) whose membership is opened to Core Curriculum
person or institution interested in Social Studies was formed. Patriotism
Cold War Academic Social Sciences
Events in the world scene, such as the Russian launching of 1950s Excellence “New Social
Sputnik (1957) and American internal social problems of the & Studies”
1960s Sputnik Launch Scientific
1960s gave birth to the “new Social Studies” that began in Knowledge Inquiry Method
the 1960s. Assessment
1980s reports on the Historical History History
Many teaching aids were developed and employed in the state of Literacy Standards
teaching of concepts and in the formulation of education
generalizations to promote effective teaching of Social
Studies.

1970’s, the discipline started focusing on relevance to social

problems and self-realization.

Important to know that in United States of America, there is

no national Social Studies syllabus for all schools. Each
school district writes its own Social Studies syllabus.

Social Studies in American scene as observed by Obebe

(1990) does not have a static structure. It has transformed
from citizenship education for national development by
enlarging the vision and meaning of citizenship to include

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 Foundations of Social Studies
1st Semester | 1SEDS-B | Prelims | PPT, Module, and Lecture Based

LESSON 2: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL STUDIES

Great Britain
Development of social studies thought in Britain.
1930s, What could be regarded as the Social Studies
content at that time included materials from the Economics
and Political Science, which were then taught as Civics
(Ogundare 2000).
The dynamic growth of the British society and advancement
in technology have all combined to improve the thoughts
of Social Studies in Britain to the extent that the focus of the
discipline has shifted, and subject is now seen as Modern
Studies with its contents including living in the community,
living with others, urban life and learning.
PHILIPPINES

By 1944, the Social Studies curriculum emerged during the
establishment of secondary education for all, when the
school leaving age was raised from 14 to 15years and
teachers had to be retrained, as pointed by Lawton and
Dufour 1974.
• Obebe (1990) observed through a remark that,
“There is little evidence of the existence Social
Studies in the curriculum at the beginning of
twentieth century, although history and geography
(which were fairly established in the elementary
and grammar school by the1920s) would
sometimes include materials generally referred to
as “civics”.
• By 1926, there was a criticism of the content of the
school curriculum through the Hadow Report. The
report also noticed some elements of indoctrination
in what was being taught in schools, e.g., children
were taught to “honor the queen” ‘run away from
every policeman, etc.
The Social Studies program that emerged during this period
however faced a lot of resentment from subject specialists
like the historians and geographers, who saw nothing
special in the growing thoughts of subject.
British educators therefore saw a liberal education as a way
to bring about greater understanding of human kind. The
thought of Social Studies for inclusion in the school
curriculum became more prominent as it was recognized as
capable or helping the pupils and adults become socially
conscious and responsible members of their society
By the early 1960s there was a revival of interest in Social
Studies as a result of the recommendations of the Crowther
Report of 1959 and the Newton Report of 1963. The two
demanded that school curricula should be relevant to
industrialized and changing society.
FACTORS THAT SHAPE AND DETERMINE THE SOCIAL STUDIES
CURRICULUM IN PHILIPPINE BASIC EDUCATION (1980S–2010)
This study analyzes the process of curriculum development
in Social Studies in Philippine basic education from 1980 to
2010 and argues that the curriculum, as a product, is shaped
and determined by political contexts and results from the
deliberations and decisions of a group of people tasked to
craft it.
CURRICULIM REVISIONS IN ELEM & SECONDARY SOCIAL STUDIES, 1982-
2010
YEAR CURRICULUM TITLES
1982 New Elementary School Curriculum (NESC)
Minimum Learning Competencies
1989 New Secondary Education Curriculum (NSEC)
Desired Learning Competencies
1997 New Elementary School Curriculum (NESC)
Philippine Elementary Schools Learning
Competencies (PESLC)
1998 New Secondary Education Curriculum (NSEC)
Philippine Secondary Schools Learning
Competencies (PSSLC)
2002 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC)
2010 2010 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC)
Philippine Elementary Learning Competencies
Philippine Secondary Learning Competencies

“Social Studies, to focus on how to equip the youth to

become well-trained adults in an industrialized society”.

By 1968, an important year for Social Studies, key books and

curriculum projects on the subject emerged.

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 Foundations of Social Studies
1st Semester | 1SEDS-B | Prelims | PPT, Module, and Lecture Based

LESSON 2: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL STUDIES

Comparing the 1973 and 1989 Curriculum Objectives SUMMARY FOR PHILIPPINES DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL STUDIES

The development of the Social Studies curriculum from 1980

Objectives of 1973 Revised Secondary Education Curriculum
until 2010 was influenced by the following factors:
(RSEC)
• While the elementary curriculum was
• Develop a reasoned commitment to the goals of conceptualized during the Marcos period and the
national development by cherishing, preserving, secondary curriculum, during the Aquino
and developing moral and spiritual values and administration, the two different political contexts
other aspects of the national heritage desirable in affected the way the educational goals were
Philippine society expressed.
• Acquire the basic occupational skills, knowledge, • The production of textbooks was also affected by
these two different political contexts. From 1982 to
and information essential for obtaining initial gainful
1995, the government through the IMC,
employment and for making intelligent choice of
monopolized the production and distribution of
occupation or career
textbooks for public schools. From 1996 to 2010,
• Understand the wide possibilities of the arts and the
private publishers resumed production and
sciences as permanent sources of pleasures and
distribution of textbooks, with the creation of the
profit, and discover, broaden, and heighten his
abilities in and appreciation for them NBDB.
• The curriculum writing team was composed of
Objectives of the 1989 New Secondary Education Curriculum master teachers, the Department of Education
staff, and consultants (content experts). Given the
(NSEC) diminished role of consultants in influencing the
curriculum, with their comments ignored or not
• Develop an enlightened commitment to the integrated in the final draft, it can be said that the
national ideals by cherishing, preserving and curriculum from 1980 until 2010 was significantly the
developing moral, spiritual, and socio- cultural handiwork of the master teachers and the DE staff.
values as well as other desirable aspects of the
Filipino heritage
• Acquire work skills, knowledge and information, and
a set of work ethics essential for making intelligent
choice of an occupation or career and for
specialized training in specific occupation
• Broaden and heighten one's abilities in and
appreciation for the arts, science and technology
as a means for maximizing one's potentials for self-
fulfillment and for promoting the welfare of others.

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 Foundations of Social Studies
1st Semester | 1SEDS-B | Prelims | PPT, Readings, and Lecture Based
LESSON 3: SOCIAL STUDIES AS SOCIAL EDUCATION
Social studies as social education
• Unlike social studies as social science, social studies
for social education views the purpose for
teaching as preparing youth for their later
participation in adult life and citizenship. Indeed,
many, if not most, educators view the purpose of
social studies as promoting the knowledge and
skills necessary for civic participation (Barton and
Avery, in press).
A leading researcher in international citizenship education,
Carole Hahn (1998) asserted, “there is no one form of
democracy and there is no one way of teaching
democracy” (p. 236).
As a result, many conflicts exist in relation to the role of social
studies to promote citizenship.
Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne (2004) identified
three kinds of citizens promoted in schools.
1. Responsible citizen
• Works and pays taxes, obeys laws, and is generally
responsible within their community.
• In a crisis, these citizens may donate money or
materials necessary to alleviate the problem.
2. Participatory citizen
• Has an active orientation that works to organize
their community and influence government policy
toward the common good.
• During a crisis, these people are likely on the front
lines organizing and collecting goods.
3. Social-justice-oriented citizens
• Critically assess social, political, and economic
structures to understand root causes of social
problems.
• These people ultimately seek out avenues for
change at the societal level.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS:
Students are very likely to anticipate voting, but less likely to
anticipate taking part in more active political behaviors,
such as collecting money, gathering signatures on a
petition, protesting (legally or illegally), joining a political
party, engaging in local politics, or expressing opinions in
newspapers (Cleaver et al., 2005; Kennedy, 2007; Schulz et
al., 2010).
CONFLICT IN CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
In practice, Barr et al. (1977) identified
three civic outcomes related to the social studies.
1. Education for social transmission
• Emphasizes fixed core knowledge and skills for
students to learn and believe.
• Thus, education serves to reproduce society, as it
exists, leading to passive civic behaviors and
attitudes.
2. Social studies as social science
• Seeks to give students skills necessary to understand
human behavior using social scientific methods
inherent to anthropology, political science,
historiography, and/or geography.
• The goal is for students to gain the ability to
evaluate the world removed from subjective views
based on biases or prejudices.
3. Education for reflective inquiry
• Is based on students’ self-selections of problems
and working toward resolution.
• Through reflective inquiry, students gain the skills to
explore issues relevant to them and ultimately
address real social problems.
Criticisms of the three forms of citizenship education above
focus on two key aspects.
• First, the frameworks discussed fail to address issues of
group membership and identity, such as structural
inequality, sexism, and LGBTQ issues.
• Secondly, the emphasis on the nation-state in
traditional citizenship education neglects increasingly
important global perspectives.
”Papastephanou called for an enlarged view of citizenship
that goes beyond narrow considerations and allows for
conceptions that are radically different from current
society.”
Marianna Papastephanou (2008)
In short, social studies researchers emphasize the need for
curriculum to move beyond the transmission of traditional
civic behaviors to youth. Newer models of civic education
focus more on active civic engagement with consideration
of the multicultural and global realties of their society.
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 Foundations of Social Studies
1st Semester | 1SEDS-B | Prelims | PPT, Readings, and Lecture Based
LESSON 3: SOCIAL STUDIES AS SOCIAL EDUCATION
Teaching practices for social studies education
Inquiry-based learning
• College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for
Social Studies in 2013, which promoted inquiry-
based learning as heart of social studies education
and others refers as historical inquiry method.
The process includes four basic steps
1. Students with the help of teachers construct inquiry-
based questions about a topic that is under
investigation. These questions ought to be thematic
or broad in scope.
2. Students apply domain-specific strategies (e.g.,
historical thinking, geographic thinking, etc.) to
investigate a variety of primary and secondary
resource materials.
3. Students interpret the data to construct responses
to their original inquiry question. Finally, students
communicate their findings with others through
writing, advocacy, or activism.
4. This final step enables students to make their new
knowledge base relevant to their classroom and/or
local community.
In the inquiry-based learning approach, teachers act as
facilitators and provide useful resources to guide students’
investigations.
SOCRATIC SEMINARS
• Social studies researchers advocate seminar
discussions to focus on improving understandings of
an issue at hand (Hess, 2009; Parker, 2008, 2010).
• A teacher asks an opening question such as, “What
does this mean?” Students then express their
opinions and respond to the opinions of peers,
drawing ideas from evidence found in the
documents.
• The ensuing discussion should work to provide
greater clarity to the complexities of the topic.
• Finally, a debriefing session should take place to
give context to the discussion. Debriefing may
include a reflective writing or answering questions
as a large group such as “What did we accomplish
today?”
• Debriefing questions help students bring together
various ideas and can be useful to encourage
positive discussion norms for the future.
STRUCTURED ACADEMIC CONTROVERSY
• A structured academic controversy works to
uncover solutions to a problem.
• After selecting and researching issues to discuss,
teachers should clearly articulate the purposes of
the deliberation and encourage classroom norms
of respect.
• Such norms emphasize that students listen to all
sides equally, build on the ideas of others, back up
opinions with clear reasons, and take turns
speaking.
• Students start in small groups or pairs and are asked
to research a specific stance on an issue.
• Next, students switch positions on the topic and
advocate for the opposite side.
• Finally, students as a whole sort out their own
position relative to the issue and brainstorm possible
solutions.
As a goal, students evaluate alternative courses of action
related to a shared problem and ultimately address the
question, “What should we do?” Following the group
discussion, a large group debriefing can take place in order
to bring together the ideas built in small groups.
During this time, teachers encourage critiques in order to
explore the complexities of the issue. Finally, follow-up
writing assignments help students reflect on the issue
THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION
• Determining the role of technology on the learning
and teaching of social studies.
• Investigating the impact of globalization on social
studies.
• Defining global citizenship and identity.
• Exploring immigrant education and teaching and
learning social studies.
• Discovering ways to meet diverse learning and
linguistic needs of students in social studies
classrooms.
• Drawing distinctions and comparisons across
varied international school contexts.
• Documenting the response to social studies
education from individuals coming from
marginalized communities.
• Tracing the influence of standardization on social
studies teaching and learning.
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 Foundations of Social Studies
1st Semester | 1SEDS-B | Midterms |Readings, and Lecture Based
LESSON 4: PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN THE PHILIPPINES
SOCIAL STUDIES FOR DEMOCRACY:
CULTIVATING COMMUNITIES OF INQUIRY FOR FILIPINO STUDENTS AS
DELIBERATIVE CITIZENS
Introduction
It is not spurious/fake to refer to the Philippines as a “weak”
state with a “deficient” democracy.
This can be easily attributed to the nation’s long history of
colonial rule, widespread poverty and inequality, oligarchic
structures, and dysfunctional institutions.
• The reconstruction of this nation would undoubtedly
entail fundamental changes to its sociopolitical
and socioeconomic systems for a society’s ills, as
well as its strengths, are deeply ingrained in its
culture.
• The question of how it may cultivate its strengths
and mitigate, if not eradicate, its ills is thus most
important.
John Dewey
Education plays a vital role in the cultivation of a society’s
strengths for it is the fertile ground from which students could
develop skills and attitudes necessary for active
participation in democratic life: that is, if such education
provides ample opportunities for students to
grapple/struggle with one another’s experiences, ideas,
and questions.
Such an education, therefore, could very well help address
Philippines’ perennial/existing societal problems, or at least
one of the basic ones, which arguably have to do with
many Filipinos not involving themselves in democratic
discourse and not asking questions about society, culture,
and public policy.
• This, then, highlights how truly relevant Social Studies
is in Philippine basic education.
The bone of contention, at this point, is how Social Studies
would most likely succeed as a civic education for
democracy as this requires the development of critical
thinking that allows one to ask questions and to make a
categorical stand about social issues by engaging in
deliberative discourse with others who have their own ideas
about such things as well.
In this light, Social Studies would now have to do with
encouraging students to embrace the responsibility of
sharing a nation together with other people and
empowering them so that they are able to constantly
reexamine and have a say in the status quo.
• Indeed, Constantino’s (1970) recommendation for
education, which he articulated more than fifty
years ago, remains relevant to Social Studies
Education in that it must do its part in producing
Filipinos who are “aware of the country’s problems,
who understand the basic solution to these
problems, and who care enough to have the
courage to work and sacrifice for the country’s
salvation” (p.20). Social Studies in the Philippines.
Social studies in the philippines
The Philippine educational system is a product of its history
and changing sociopolitical contexts.
Colonized by Spain in the 16th century, Filipinos’ civic
education under the Spanish rule focused primarily on the
Hispanization of customs and traditions and on the
evangelization of majority of the population.
Abinales and Amoroso (2005) say that this is where the
“origins of the weak state”
Baildon et al., 2016, p.98 could be found as education
resulted in a highly stratified society where learning
opportunities were granted only to elite citizens known as
Ilustrados.
The dilution of nationalism furthered during the American
rule, with the insistence on English as the medium of
instruction separating the Filipinos from their past and the
uneducated masses (Constantino, 1970).
• After gaining independence, citizenship education
in the Philippines began to emphasize more
nationalistic themes.
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 Foundations of Social Studies
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LESSON 4: PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Nonetheless, the changing sociopolitical circumstances during
these times bore their respective influences on citizenship
education and this was evident in the way educational goals
were articulated across these periods:
Instead, the 1989 goals were revised to reflect the changes
in the political scene.
For instance, the goal to develop “a reasoned commitment
to national development” in 1973 became “enlightened
commitment to national ideals” (Nelson, 1994)
• In 1989, signifying a change in tone (from reason to
enlightenment) and construct (from national
development to national ideals). The acquisition of
work skills had to be matched with work ethics in
1989, putting forward the need for values.”
(Calingasan, 2018, p.3).
makabayan
In 2002, the Department of Education (DepEd) introduced
Makabayan, “a new learning area that integrates several
subjects with the goal of helping each Filipino student to
develop a healthy personal and national identity”.
• However, this integrated approach proved to be a
challenge that was very difficult for teachers to
overcome as the curriculum remained congested
and a coherent framework for integrating all the
curricular elements in this new, singular content
area was absent.
At the least, compared with how citizenship education was
during the Spanish and American eras as well as the Marcos
period which underscored the value of discipline over
freedom.
Social Studies at this point has become more
•
concerned with students’ autonomy, where stress is
placed not only on general ideas of love of country
or nationalism but likewise on notions of a person’s
rights and freedom.
k-12
Social Studies, or Araling Panlipunan, is no exception.
Anchored upon constructivist principles, the DepEd Social
Studies Curriculum Guide (The Department of Education,
2010) declares its learning methods to be collaborative,
integrative, multiand interdisciplinary.
• Among its goals are to help students become
critical thinkers who have acquired a deep
understanding of salient perspectives and issues in
history, geography, political science, economics,
and other related disciplines.
• Consequently, the Curriculum Guide highlights how
learning in Social Studies must culminate into
students’ meaningful appreciation of concepts
instead of mere memorization of facts.
• Unfortunately, due to factors such as lack of access
to opportunities for capacity building, large
student-teacher ratios, and a curriculum that
remains heavily congested, teachers are generally
unable to implement strategies that are
collaborative, integrative, multi- and
interdisciplinary in nature (Dizon, 2020; 2021;
Sobradil, Jacobe, Pandapatan, Porquis, & Casiro,
2017).
Nevertheless, some pedagogies/methods anchored on
these principles and involve the application of learned skills
to real life situations have been tested in the Philippine
context.
Lucman, 2020 p.1
What is essential in these kinds of strategies is that they
provide authentic communitarian experiences which allow
students, for instance, to “fully appreciate and address
issues relating to social inequality, inequity, and injustice”
• It is worth noting, however, that demystifying/easier
to understand these concepts and, perhaps,
establishing some common understandings
regarding them are necessary prior to having
students engage in community service-learning
and other participation-driven efforts.
As Lucman (2020) points out, there is a fine line between
charity and solidarity
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LESSON 4: PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Lucman identifies some elements of such democratic and
communitarian Social Studies pedagogy to be
indispensable/necessary:
1) Students should be able to explore their role
concerning social issues;
2) Students should be able to probe/examine the
status quo looking into underlying causes of social
problems and scrutinizing systems of power and
oppression on institutional, cultural, and individual
levels;
3) Students should be able to connect analysis to
action;
4) Students should be able to connect struggles across
boundaries of race, class, gender, and sexuality;
and
5) Students should be able to provide concrete
solutions”.
Evidently, these conditions necessitate some learning
process that would allow students to think reflectively,
explore various contexts and experiences, question their
assumptions, identify their prejudices, and make their own
conclusions.
Toward a democratic social studies education in the
philippine context
The notion/belief of democratic education is most closely
related to the Deweyan philosophy of experimentalism and
instrumentalism but has been interpreted in different ways
by educationists.
One interpretation of Deweyan educational ideas gave
birth to Progressivism,
• which is an evolutionary educational philosophy
preoccupied with students being able to construct
their own knowledge through experimentation of
ideas that would enable them to adapt to their own
desires and needs (Gutek, 1997).
Interestingly, despite often being regarded as the Father of
Progressivism, Dewey himself cautioned that
progressive education could merely be reactionary towards
traditional practices for progressivist methods may not
necessarily translate to experimentalist and instrumentalist
ends.
One common and important aspect of a progressivist
education (although not a specific criterion of progressivist
education) is the use of collaborative activities that not only
allow for experiential and interest-based learning, but more
importantly, for collaborative and inquiry-based learning.
“Collaborative” and “inquiry-based”
learning in the context of this paper is anchored on
Deweyan principles of education.
For instance, Dewey (1916) posits that the classroom must
become its own community—a miniature society of people
who find camaraderie/mutual trust in each other despite
differences in their beliefs and opinions and who forge a
relationship based on mutual respect as they come to
understand that to be in solidarity with others, they must
share basic aims, aspirations, and knowledge.
• Classroom as an embryonic society
democratic education
for Dewey would not just mean providing opportunities just
so students can work together collaboratively because
togetherness brings about experiential and interest-based
learning.
Instead, democratic education itself should aim at building
togetherness among students for learning together should
not be seen merely as a means in education but as an end
of education.
This is vital in a nation such as the Philippines where the people
from which the power is supposedly vested—are largely
unable to exercise such power actively and intelligently as
has been evident across history. As discussed, the baggage
that the nation carries from its colonial past has ultimately
resulted in the failure of its liberalism (Claudio, 2017).
While there have been efforts towards post-colonial
liberalism, the divide between the elite and the poor has
already been so starkly/severely drawn that the very idea of
“the people” has become so ambiguous, the identification
of which remains to be “a sustained political effort that is
both necessarily exclusive and conflictual” (Ordoñez &
Borja, 2018, p.3).
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LESSON 4: PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN THE PHILIPPINES

Currently, this has led political scientists such as
Ordoñez and Borja (2018)
to analyze what they refer to as “the Duterte phenomenon”
that results in the election of a populist leader in a
supposedly ‘democratic’ country.
Regardless of what one’s political affiliations may be, from
an educationist’s perspective, the idea that majority of the
Filipino citizens who spend their youth in the schools are not
provided with sufficient opportunities to cultivate their
shared intelligence, to nourish their concern for their
fellowmen and their society, and to assert their rights for self-
determination, there does not appear to be much hope for
a genuinely democratic Philippines.
• It may suffice to say thus that Philippine education,
ultimately, would be nothing more than an
instrument for social reproduction of inequality and
injustice.
The Community of Inquiry and a Democratic
Social Studies Education
Applied to Social Studies Education, lessons in the subject
area will now revolve on students’ questions regarding a
given topic for a day or the duration of the week.
Hence, knowledge about history, culture, society, politics,
economics, and geography in the community is built and
not merely transmitted, as students are given opportunities
to ask questions and share their opinions while following the
train of logic in the process of inquiry.
conclusions and recommendations
• Social Studies and citizenship education are one
and the same.
As argued, the community of inquiry is an ideal
pedagogy/method for Social Studies Education as it aims to
provide an environment that will allow the teacher to not
only teach Social Studies concepts to students but more
importantly, to develop in them communitarian attitudes
and inquiry skills that will allow them to “acquire a taste for
rational analysis, driven by a thirst for truth”
“Education is a part of the continuous reconstruction of
knowledge and of society, and transformation is achieved
partly through the acquisition of a critical language to
analyze ideas, beliefs and theories”
Finally, it is high time that the Philippine education
curriculum rethink and refocus its priorities, from mere
content knowledge acquisition measured mainly through
quantifiable forms of assessment, to the development of
communitarian attitudes and inquiry skills that would help
Filipinos live a much more meaningful and prosperous life
both as an individual and as a member of a revitalized
Philippine society.
• Because a wide debate on the assessment of the
development of thinking skills and dispositions in
dialogues and of the progress and quality of the
community of inquiry persists among educationists
and researchers, future research may look into
more comprehensive and holistic criteria for
evaluating these.

What Makes a Community of Inquiry

the nature of the community of inquiry is cooperative and

not competitive, students will see for themselves how it is
better to “depersonalize their opinions to the extent that
they can critically analyze their own as well as others’”

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LESSON 5: SOCIAL STUDIES AND OTHER DISCIPLINES
THE SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES
The boundaries among the social sciences are artificial in
the sense that they all study the same thing: human
behavior in the social environment. Each discipline,
however,
Through the Lens of Science focuses on specific facets of
that environment and behavior, in effect allowing social
scientists to specialize. Social scientists are aware of the
overlapping nature of their disciplines, and they often
borrow from one another. The differences, in short, are a
matter of emphasis.
Anthropology
Anthropology combines a natural science—biology—and
information gathered from the social sciences to uncover
the relationships between human biological traits and traits
acquired socially, that is, by living in groups.
It is divided into two:
physical anthropology - which is concerned principally with
human biological origins and the variations in the human
species,
cultural anthropology - which has traditionally dealt with the
study and comparative analysis of preliterate societies.
Physical and cultural anthropology
Physical anthropologists use genetics, the science that
analyzes heredity, in an attempt to uncover how the genes
of living organisms determine the characteristics of their
offspring.
Genetics is particularly useful to social scientists as they try to
untangle the complex issue of how much of human
behavior is learned and how much is inherited.
Physical anthropology is divided into three branches that
frequently overlap:
• paleoanthropology, meaning the study of fossils, of
human and of related species;
• primatology, or the study of primates;
• genetics, or the study of modern human variability
and adaptability.
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology concerns itself with all facets of
human culture: kinship forms, linguistics, material artifacts,
economic structures, music, and folklore.
Cultural anthropologists today are likely to include the study
of subgroups within contemporary societies and apply their
methodology to new settings.
More information:
Anthropology also includes the field of archaeology, which is
concerned with unearthing fossilized bones and artifacts of
humans and other species to furnish dates and historical
data about past societies, both those that left no written
records and those whose records may have been lost or are
incomplete.
Anthropological concepts are used to describe the physical
development of humans as well as to delineate their chief
feature, which is culture.
Economics
Economy is a human institution, that is, an ingrained habit
through which people have attempted to facilitate their
survival in the face of scarcity of resources.
• studies the systems that societies construct to help
them in this endeavor.
Economists attempt to understand the activities of people in
the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and
services necessary to sustain life.
• They examine the value of work, of natural resources,
and of money as a medium of exchange; they
define the concepts of supply and demand,
savings and investments, cost and price, and
economic fluctuations; and they describe the
principles used by political systems to justify their
methods of distribution of goods and services.
It attempts to explain some social processes (such as “who
gets what and why”),
• the origins of some social problems (such as
poverty),
• the importance of work as a source of identity,
occupational status,
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LESSON 5: SOCIAL STUDIES AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

• increases or decreases in the standard of living,
History
• the effects of rising expectations, and so on.

History is not universally considered a social science

geography because its primary objective is to record human events for
future generations.
Geography is primarily a natural science concerned with the
planet we inhabit, that is, the land, bodies of water, In fact, historians often cannot use the scientific method.
mountains, valleys, types of vegetation, and animal
The discipline, however, does attempt to study
habitats. These are area of physical geography, which draws systematically a sequence of related events—or a number
most of its knowledge from the of such sequences—for the purpose of learning about,
verifying, and establishing meaningful relationships among
• disciplines of astronomy, them. Because history provides a context in which to study
• botany, human relationships systematically, it may be considered a
• ecology,
• geochemistry,
social science.
• geology,
• meteorology,
Historical facts are interspersed in discussions of every facet
• oceanography, of the social sciences because it is impossible to interpret
• and so on. the present and speculate about the future without
reference to the past.
However, geography is also concerned with the ways in
which people use the natural environment. Political science
These matters are in the realm of human/cultural geography Political science is the study of power. The discipline probes
and depend on information obtained from such social the need for an institution to maintain order, make decisions,
sciences as anthropology, history, political science, and provide for defense.
psychology, sociology, urban studies, and so on.
It also analyzes the forms the institution takes and the
Of special importance to the social sciences are several processes that emerge. The discipline includes such
disciplines that are off-shoots of geography. concepts as the state, politics, power, and ideology.
• Demography is the study of populations, including Historically, political science has had a strong
increases and decreases in size, composition, age philosophical, legal, and administrative orientation. More
grouping, and future trends. recently, the discipline has taken a turn toward the social
• Ecology is the science that studies the relationship sciences in that it is concerned with the effect of government
between all living organisms and their natural and its processes on individuals and groups in society.
environment.
o It includes biodiversity, or the study of the An important part of political science is international

variety and interdependence of species. relations, which tries to uncover patterns of behavior among
the nations of the world.

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LESSON 5: SOCIAL STUDIES AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

psychology

Psychology focuses on the forces that shape and motivate

individuals, forming their minds and personalities. The
discipline, especially in its medical form,

psychiatry, draws on the natural sciences for information

concerning the physical structure of humans, their nervous
system, their physical development and maturation, and
other.

It draws on the social sciences for input in the areas of

behavior that originate from social interaction. Because
psychology deals with human beings, who are complex
mixtures of biological and social elements, the discipline is
wide ranging and the most experimental of the social
sciences.

Psychologists must be familiar with human biology as well as

with social processes and their effects

Social psychologists specialize in studying socialization,

emotions, memory, perception, and intelligence.

They also examine such issues as language acquisition,

motivation, learning, adjustment and maladjustment, the
effects of heredity and environment, problem solving, and
others.

Sociology

Sociology is the newest of the social sciences, having

emerged long after the other social science disciplines were
already established.

Contemporary sociology may be defined as the systematic

and scientific study of human social relationships and of all
the social systems that such relationships engender.

In more popular terms, sociology is said to be the study of

human groups in interaction, or the scientific study of human
society and human group behavior.

Although psychology also analyzes human behavior, its

focus is the individual. The focus of sociology, on the other
hand, is individual in interaction with others or as he or she
moves in the social environment.

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