Portal:Social Science/Introduction

Social Sciences encompass all those concerns that involve society, interactions within individuals in the society, interactions between societies and interactions with the physical environment. As a subject in schools, social sciences will draw from the academic disciplines of history, geography, political science, economics and sociology. The objectives of the social science curriculum in schools is to build an understanding of the society and environment and to develop skills in students that will help them to engage meaningfully with Social science curriculum in schools poses unique opportunities and challenges. Besides engaging with specific academic disciplines, a sensitive teacher should be able to see the social dimensions implicit in all academic disciplines - for example, the sociology of science, the tole of gender in gender in mathematics learning or the connections between language and society. Integrating different academic disciplines into a meaningful school curriculum poses unique opportunities and challenges. Social sciences open up the possibility for the education process to engage with the context of the child and the community and the content areas and skills can be developed through this context. This could allow the child to see the school and the interdisciplinary nature of learning and the school itself as a relevant space for engaging with their proximate issues. The challenges of the curriculum are also centered along these same areas. If the curriculum is not sensitively designed or delivered, the social science classes may simply remain the reiteration of the social contexts or problems. If the curriculum is not inclusively designed this will create and strengthen stereotypes and exclusions. A social science teacher thus has to move beyond the content areas and examine critically the processes of society, school and learning.