Search results for: Jacobs Benjamin M.

The present study examines how teacher education programs contributed and/or responded to the emergence of social studies as a school subject in the early part of the twentieth century. The authors argue that the data reveal some longstanding assumptions about the development of the social studies field. For instance, there was little agreement among subject matter and education specialists regarding what constituted the social studies curriculum. Hence, there was little agreement on what social studies teachers and students needed to know. However, this little agreement suggests that disarray in the social studies field may have been as much a function of disorder in the realm of teacher education as it was of conflict among national committees. The authors conclude that the current study represents first efforts in a pursuit of understanding the historical connection of teacher education and curriculum reform.