Desmption of the study

ik The evolution of social knowledge into the social science disciplines hes-stilted intellectual activity; moreover,-social education perpetuates these disciplines without critically examining the bages of their existence. Although the most widely accepted criterik for determining a discipline is that it have a structure of basic.principles and a specific mode of inquiry, the standard attempts to define'a social Science discipline result only in desoriptive stateMents of what the "disciples " do,and what exclusive language they use. For exanple,.most definitions of the social sciences envelope the content of other fields. History, anthropology, geographyl, sociology, psychology, political science, and economics all endeavor to eXamine the actions of humans; none 0have unique structures of knowledge or mode's of inquiry..the implications for social education are great. The current dominant. social mentality is functionalist; it operates to preserve and protect the establiihed social order. This functionalist ideology is expressed in,social studies curricula and texts and in the social, sciences themselves. The social studies curriculum assumes that-the disciplines offer truth rather than tentative theoiies; thePresult is the iMposition of dominant.class values, norms, and assumed order without criticism'. (KC) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from'the original document