We have a subject
called social science taught in some form or the other in schools across the
world. Sometimes it goes by the name of Environment Studies (like in the
present primary schools in India), sometimes as separate subjects – History,
Geography, Civics (or the more Contemporary Citizenship Education in many
countries today or social and political Life as in India) until middle school
and then as History, Geography, Economics, Political Science and Sociology in
high school. In some countries and at sometimes there has been a subject called
Social Studies and some kinds of thinking excludes History and Geography from
the Social Sciences and treats them as separate subjects while including
Economics, Political Science and Sociology in the social sciences. For the
purpose of this type of writing (Blogs), I will not enter into that discourse,
however relevant. By social sciences, I mean all subjects dealing with the
analysis of some or all aspects of society and social life seen through some
lens or the other. Thus History is part of social science as it analyses
continuity and change in different aspects of society and their
interrelationships over time, Geography as it does the same across regions, Economics
as it develops and applies the concepts and method to analyse economic aspects,
Sociology as it does the same for the social aspects and Political Science for
political aspects. Till the elementary level of schooling, the latter three are
not taught as separate subjects, but are in some way integrated through the
subject of civics, citizenship education or social and political life as the
case may be.
At MANTRA, we
have been striving hard to provide subject-content support to our teachers in
whichever we can. We are looking for extending support to our partner schools
in this discipline because this is the most commonly feared among the teachers
and students.
“How do I make
it interesting? The content is just so dry! What is the content aiming —
remembering dates?!”
These are some of
the common statements that I have received and trust me, as a student of Social
sciences I feel different now. However, I felt the same way when I was in
school. So what kind of Social Sciences is worth teaching?
Irrespective of
how we understand the social sciences, there is often a question in the minds
of parents and society in general as to whether the social sciences are
relevant at all to the lives of people in today’s technocratic world. The first
question people ask is what will a child do if s/he takes up the study of any
of the social sciences at the college level? What kind of ‘job prospects’ does
s/he have- become a teacher in a school or college, a researcher or academic;
join one of the services through the entrance exams? Take up a management field
particularly Human Resource Management. All these options are open to a
graduate of engineering or a medical student as well; so why take up social
sciences if the option of the so called technical fields is open?
This attitude
percolates to the primary and high school level as well where students (and
parents) have the attitude of just wanting to pass in the social sciences.
Seldom is it asked as to how the social sciences can contribute to make students
better human beings or make them capable of contributing to the betterment of
society or in fact, how can the teaching and learning of social sciences at
school sustain and develop a democracy. Specialising in a social science at the
college level needs to be looked at differently from the essential education in
the social sciences at the school level.
Getting too much
for one blog?
Stay tuned for
the second part wherein I will write what according to me the aims of History
and Social Science Education should be. You can agree and disagree, add or
subtract, maybe implement it in your classrooms! For that, you have to read the
second part :)
- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Vasundhara, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.
