The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Elementary Teachers brings together the work of education scholars and the experiences of teachers, the best of theory and of practice, in a comprehensive collection of ideas and activities for elementary social studies. The twenty-seven chapters present a diversity of perspectives that provide context, insight, and direction for social studies teaching and learning.
This updated edition of The Anthology of Social Studies presents a powerful and exciting vision of social studies. It has a stronger focus on elementary examples, a new chapter on teaching elementary students to think geographically, updated references, and a greater emphasis on the use of innovative technologies and digital resources in social studies. This collection blends specific, practical teaching suggestions with important discussions of the foundational issues at the heart of social studies teaching. It is an essential resource for pre-service and practising elementary teachers and curriculum developers.

Roland Case is the executive director of the Critical Thinking Consortium (TC²)—a non-profit association of school districts and educational organizations across Canada. He is a retired professor of social studies education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Roland has edited or authored over 100 published works. Notable among these is the award-winning series of TC² teaching resources entitled Critical Challenges Across the Curriculum. In addition to his public school and university teaching, Roland has worked with over 18,000 educators across Canada and in the United States, England, Israel, Russia, India, Finland, and Hong Kong to support the infusion of critical thinking. Roland was the 2006 recipient of the Distinguished Academics Career Achievement Award from the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC (CUFA).

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Penney Clark is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia and the director of the History Education Network/Histoire et éducation en réseau (THEN/ HiER). She was awarded the Killam Teaching Prize in 2005 for her teaching of social studies curriculum and instruction, the history of curriculum, and the politics of curriculum development courses at UBC. She co-authored three Canadian history textbooks and has published articles in the Journal of Canadian Studies, Canadian Journal of Education, American Journal of Education, History of Education Quarterly, and Theory and Research in Social Education. Her most recent publication is the edited volume, New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada (UBC Press, 2011). For additional information, see edcp.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/penney-clark/.

Penney Clark's profile page

Mary Abbott began her career as a primary teacher and later taught all of the elementary grades, special education, and also served as teacher-librarian. She retired from the Faculty of Education at Vancouver Island University in 2009. Her teaching areas have included social studies methods, language arts methods, literacy development, and assessment. As a member of the Critical Thinking Consortium, Mary is involved in the creation and editing of teaching resources and the facilitation of professional development for teachers.

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Philip Balcaen is a faculty member at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus where he teaches mathematics, teaching methodology for science, and graduate courses in curriculum studies. Previously, he taught at Simon Fraser University and at the secondary level in the BC public education system. His research interests include school–university collaboration, critical thinking, environmental studies and education, and critically thoughtful e-learning.

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Wanda Cassidy is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education and Director of the Centre for Education, Law and Society at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Her research primarily focuses on law-related education and its intersection with citizenship education and the civil society. She is interested in the relationship between law and societal values and beliefs, including the ethics of care, social responsibility, human rights, and social justice. Current research projects include an examination of legal literacy among students in grades 6 to 10 and cyberbullying in middle schools and at the post-secondary level.

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LeRoi Daniels was a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia until his death in 2011. He was a founding member of the Critical Thinking Consortium and an author of the model of critical thinking that forms the conceptual foundation of the consortium’s work. LeRoi wrote various articles on critical thinking and was co-editor of Critical Challenges Across the Curriculum, a series of teaching resources for critical thinking.

LeRoi Daniels' profile page

Linda Farr Darling is the Eleanor Rix Professor of Rural Teacher Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, a position dedicated to preparing, recruiting, and supporting rural teachers for British Columbia through research, teaching, and policy work. As part of her role, she oversees a UBC teacher education program located in the West Kootenays where she teaches courses on rural issues and the ethical dimensions of teaching and learning. Linda’s current research focuses on place-conscious learning in K–12 classrooms and in teacher preparation. She is also studying the potential role of schooling in rural revitalization efforts. She is working with research partners in New South Wales to explore Australian initiatives in this area.

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Christine Eide emigrated from Holland to northern British Columbia when she twelve years old. At age fifteen she got an after-school job working in a Hudson’s Bay trading post. She began her teaching career in a one-room school, Upper Kispiox Rural School. Christine has taught a range of grade levels in various northern communities, and was a principal for 19 years before retirement. She has been a faculty associate in Simon Fraser University’s teacher education program and a practicum placement coordinator for the University of Northern British Columbia’s B.Ed. program.

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Margaret Ferguson is a teacher in northern British Columbia. She has a law degree from the University of Alberta and has published numerous articles on law-related education. For thirteen years, Margaret was the School Reorganizing Coordinator for the Legal Resource Centre in the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta.

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Susan Gibson began her career as a social studies teacher in the public school systems in both Alberta and Ontario, where she taught elementary/middle years grades. She is now a professor in the Department of Elementary Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. Since completing her PhD in Curriculum Studies at the University of British Columbia in 1995, Susan has taught undergraduate courses on social studies curriculum and graduate curriculum courses. Much of her research has focussed on how best to prepare pre-service and practising educators to teach social studies in a digital age. In 2009, she wrote Teaching Elementary Social Studies: A Social Constructivist Approach (Nelson Education). This book describes the problem-based inquiry approach to learning to teach social studies that Susan uses in her undergraduate teaching, for which she won both the Faculty of Education Undergraduate Teaching Award and the University of Alberta’s Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

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Garfield Gini-Newman is a senior lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto and a senior national consultant with the Critical Thinking Consortium. Formerly, he was a curriculum consultant with the York Region District School Board and a classroom educator for fifteen years teaching a range of subjects, including history, philosophy, politics, and English. He has spoken across Canada and internationally on critical thinking, brain-compatible classrooms, curriculum design, and effective assessment practice. Garfield has also authored seven textbooks and has taught in the Faculty of Education at both York University and the University of British Columbia.

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Laura Gini-Newman is currently an instructional resource teacher and a Math Gains coach for the Peel District School Board in Ontario. She is also a facilitator for the Critical Thinking Consortium. Laura has developed math resources for students at risk and has presented on the topic of “Critical Thinking in Mathematics,” both in Ontario and the United States. She has been a consultant in Peel for nine years with returns to classroom practice. Her work ranges from writing textbooks and assessment handbooks to facilitating school improvement plans.

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Michael Ling is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. He works primarily with in-service teachers in graduate diploma and degree programs. He is interested in what occurs at the intersection of culture, education, and the arts, and in the ways that these areas contribute to our collective and individual pursuit of meaning in the world and to a meaningful life.

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Roberta McKay has been a professor in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta and is currently the Director of the Master of Education in Educational Studies program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. She has authored social studies textbooks and teacher guides for use in elementary and secondary schools. Her awards include the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the University of Alberta, the Exemplary Dissertation Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, and the Educational Research Award from the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

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Cathy Morgan began teaching primary grades in a small northern community in British Columbia in 1971, and she taught for many years at the elementary levels. For several years she was a faculty associate in Simon Fraser University’s professional development program where she worked with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal student teachers. For the past six years prior to retirement, Cathy served as the administrator of a small rural school.

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Tom Morton taught for over thirty years in Kabala, Sierra Leone; Montreal; and Vancouver at the high school and university levels. Over his career, Tom has received the British Columbia Social Studies Teacher of the Year Award, the Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History, and the Kron Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education. He is one of the founders of the British Columbia Cooperative Learning Association and is the author of Cooperative Learning and Social Studies: Towards Excellence and Equity (Kagan). He co-authored The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts (Nelson). Currently, he is the Provincial Coordinator of the BC Heritage Fairs Society.

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John Myers is currently a curriculum instructor in elementary and secondary education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto—after a four-decade teaching career in Canada and elsewhere. His interests include Canadian immigration history and policy, classroom assessment, and the thoughtful use of a repertoire of teaching strategies across the curriculum. At present, he is involved in a project with several American teachers on the use of co-operative learning to promote social and emotional development linked to academic achievement.

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Paul Neufeld is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where he teaches courses on reading and learning disabilities. His research is inspired by broad questions about how best to address the needs of students for whom school is often challenging—historically, schools have not supported these students well. More specifically, his research focuses on the reading development and instruction of students that struggle with print and on the historical emergence, practice, and ongoing development of the constructs of learning disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in school contexts.

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Lynn Newbery graduated from the University of Toronto in the midsixties, and moved to a coastal community in British Columbia where she first discovered the excitement of teaching about First Nations history and culture. She has held teaching or administrative positions in secondary and elementary schools, and been active in the communities in which she has lived. After retiring from the public school system, Lynn became a faculty associate with Simon Fraser University, working with student teachers. She is currently a school trustee with Coast Mountain School District.

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Özlem Sensoy is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. She conducts research on social justice education, critical media literacy, and cultural studies. Her research articles have appeared in such journals as Gender and Education, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, and Race Ethnicity and Education. She is the co-editor of the award-winning books Muslim Voices in School (Sense Publishing, 2009) and Rethinking Popular Culture and Education (Rethinking Schools, 2011). Her most recent book, published by Teachers College Press, is called Is Everyone Really Equal? For additional information, see www.educ.sfu.ca/research/sensoy/.

Özlem Sensoy's profile page

A three-time nominee for the Journey Prize, Neil Smith published his debut collection, Bang Crunch, with Knopf Canada in 2007. It was later published in America, Britain, France, Germany, and India. It was chosen as a best Book of the year by the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail. His second book, a novel called Boo, was published in May 2015 with Vintage Books in the U.S., William Heinemann in Britain, and Knopf in Canada.

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Stefan Stipp has taught humanities at secondary schools in Surrey, BC, for eighteen years and has also been a faculty associate in Simon Fraser University’s teacher education program. Additional background about his work with portfolio assessment can be found in his Master’s thesis, “Tilling the Soil: Making Portfolio Assessment Work in an Integrated High School Humanities Setting.” He is currently developing a framework to help students become self-regulated learners.

Stefan Stipp's profile page

Amy von Heyking is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. She is a member of the executive board of the History Education Network (THEN/HiER). Her areas of research include history teaching and learning, and the history of school curricula in Canada. She is the author of the teaching resource Teaching with Dear Canada (Scholastic Canada, 3 vols.), head author of the Teaching Social Studies Through Literature series (Scholastic Canada), and author of Creating Citizens: History and Identity in Alberta’s Schools (University of Calgary Press, 2006).

Amy von Heyking's profile page

Walter Werner is a retired faculty member who taught social studies education in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy. He has also taught graduate courses in curriculum issues and curriculum change and implementation, and has published widely in the areas of global education and visual literacy.

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Andrew Young has taught in BC public schools for over twenty years. He completed an MA in Environmental Education and Communications from Royal Roads University. Andrew also spent three summers as an instructor for a geography methods class in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. In addition to teaching, Andrew served as the Canadian Council for Geographic Education (CCGE) representative for BC and the Yukon for the maximum term of six years and is now a member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society College of Fellows. Andrew’s enthusiastic commitment to geographic education extends beyond the classroom with field trips to Mount St. Helens, presenting workshops at social studies conferences, marking geography exams, and participating in Project Watershed.

Andrew Young's profile page

The Anthology of Social Studies has been the backbone of my social studies education course for pre-service teachers, providing the overall theoretical framework for the course while at the same time providing practical tools for the classroom. It captures the ‘enduring understandings’ that we hope our students walk into the classrooms with, ensuring that the learning experience will continue well beyond the covers of the book and the walls of our classroom.

Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng, associate professor, Crandall University

…a must-have for the social studies teacher. Not only was it invaluable to me as an education student, but I still find myself consulting it on a regular basis years into my career.

Gordon von Muehldorfer, social studies teacher, Calgary, Alberta

This is the most useful and widely applicable textbook I’ve had at the Faculty of Education. Amazing.

Bachelor of Education student, Western University

“The Anthology of Social Studies is a must-read for practicing and pre-service teachers of social studies alike. Updated and added chapters provide the latest ideas for addressing all aspects of teaching and learning social studies in the elementary school.

Susan Gibson, professor, University of Alberta

No resource I own has so many notes in the margins, post-its, and highlighting that help guide me in creating activities for both students and teachers. This is the one teaching resource that every teacher of geography, history, and social studies must have as a part of their library.

Bernie Rubenstein, Toronto District School Board consultant (retired)

The Anthology has proved an invaluable resource with chapter after chapter of essential learning for social studies teacher candidates; this book will continue on as a valued and well-used desktop companion as they embark on their teaching careers.

Joan M. Chambers, assistant professor, Lakehead University

The Anthology of Social Studies is accessible and well written. Students really appreciate the hands-on teaching strategies that they can use in their social studies classrooms.

Marianne Larsen, associate professor, Western University

The articles, with their wealth of activities and excellent ideas, are valuable whether the reader is a student teacher, a practising teacher, or an instructor at a university. Highly recommended.

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