Social studies education researchers call for Iraq exit

The resolution below was passed by the College and University Faculty Assembly of National Council for the Social Studies at the annual conference in Washington, DC, November 30 2006. This resoultions draws on numerous sources, including official position statements of the National Council for the Social Studies and the Historians Against the War resolution to be presented at the American Historical Association.

Download pdf version with footnotes here.

Submitted by The Rouge Forum and the following members of NCSS: E. Wayne Ross (University of British Columbia*), Timothy Cashman (University of Texas, El Paso), Rudolfo Chávez Chávez (New Mexico State University), Margaret Smith Crocco (Teachers College, Columbia University), Ron Evans (San Diego State University), Kristi Fragnoli (College of St. Rose), Stephen C. Fleury (Le Moyne College), William Gaudelli (Teachers College, Columbia University), Rich Gibson (Sand Diego State University), Neil O. Houser (University of Oklahoma), David Hursh (University of Rochester), Curry Malott (D’Youville College), Perry M. Marker (Sonoma State University), Valerie Ooka Pang (San Diego State University), Marc Pruyn (New Mexico State University), Cesar Rossatto (University of Texas, El Paso), Alan J. Singer (Hofstra University), Brenda Trofanenko (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Kevin D. Vinson (University of Arizona)

Rationale: NCSS standards documents and position statements consistently identify citizenship education as the primary purpose of K-12 social studies. These statements argue that concern for the common good and citizen participation in public life are essential to the health of our democratic system. If, as NCSS consistently argues, effective social studies education prepares young people to identify, understand, critically analyze and take action to solve the problems facing our diverse nation in an increasingly interdependent world. Then it is incumbent on social studies educators and their primary professional organization to take actions in the public arena that are consistent with the stated purposes of the profession.

Whereas the National Council for the Social Studies’ National Standards for Social Studies Teachers emphasizes the importance of social studies teachers’ knowledge, capabilities, and dispositions to organize and provide instruction at the appropriate school level for the study of Power, Authority, and Governance ;

And whereas the National Standards for Social Studies Teachers state that “understanding the historical development of structures of power, authority, and governance and their evolving functions in contemporary society, as well as in other parts of the world, is essential the development of civic competence;

And whereas in exploring the theme of “Power, Authority, and Governance” the National Standards for Social Studies Teachers encourage teachers to have “learners confront such questions as: What is power? What is legitimate authority? How are governments created, structured, maintained and change? However can we keep government responsive to its citizens’ needs and interests? How can individual rights be protected within the context of majority rule?” ;

And where as the National Standards for Social Studies Teachers state that teachers should: provide opportunities for learners to examine issues involving the rights, roles, and status of individuals in relation to the general welfare; enable learners to describe the ways nations and organizations respond to forces of unity and diversity affecting order and security; have learners explain conditions, actions, and motivations that contribute to conflict and cooperation within and among nations; help learners to analyze and explain governmental mechanisms to meet the needs and wants of citizens, regulate territory, manage conflict, and establish order and security; challenge learners to apply concepts such as power, role, status, justice, democratic values, and influence to the examination of persistent issues and social problems; and guide learners to explain and evaluate how governments attempt to achieve their states ideals at home and abroad.

And whereas the NCSS position statement on “A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy” states that “Social studies teachers need to treat the social world realistically and address its controversial aspects” ;

And whereas NCSS’s statement “Essentials of the Social Studies” notes that concern for the common good and citizen participation in public life are essential to the health of our democratic system ;

And whereas the NCSS position statement “Academic Freedom and the Social Studies Teacher,” states: “A teacher’s academic freedom is his/her right and responsibility to study, investigate, present, interpret, and discuss all the relevant facts and ideas in the field of his/her professional competence. This freedom implies no limitations other than those imposed by generally accepted standards of scholarship. As a professional, the teacher strives to maintain a spirit of free inquiry, open-mindedness, and impartiality in the classroom. As a member of an academic community, however, the teacher is free to present in the field of his or her professional competence his/her own opinions or convictions and with them the premises from which they are derived. ”

And whereas NCSS is an endorser of the American Association of University Professors’ “1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure”;

And whereas the NCSS “Revised Code of Ethics for the Social Studies Profession” states that: “The social studies professional should acknowledge the worth and tentativeness of knowledge. He or she should engage in a continuous search for new knowledge, retaining both the right and the obligation as a student scholar to doubt, to inquire freely, and to raise searching questions” ;

And whereas the “Revised Code of Ethics for the Social Studies Profession” also states “It is the ethical responsibility of social studies professionals to foster the understanding and exercise the rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States and of the responsibilities implicit in those rights in an increasingly interdependent world.

And whereas during the war in Iraq and the so-called “war on terror,” the Administration of George W. Bush has violated the above-mentioned standards and principles through the following practices:

• excluding well-recognized foreign scholars;
• condemning as “revisionism” the search for truth about pre-war intelligence;
• re-classifying previously unclassified government documents;
• suspending in certain cases the centuries-old writ of habeas corpus and substituting indefinite administrative detention without specified criminal charges or access to a court of law;
• using interrogation techniques at Guantanamo, Abu-Ghraib, Bagram, and other locations incompatible with respect for the dignity of all persons required by a civilized society.

And whereas “The fundamental values and beliefs taught in social studies are drawn from many sources, but especially from the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution with its Bill of Rights. These beliefs form the basic principles of our democratic constitutional order. They depend on such practices as due process, equal protection, free expression, and civic participation, and they have roots in the concepts of liberty, justice, equality, responsibility, diversity, and privacy.”

Now, therefore, the National Council for the Social Studies urges its members and associated groups through publication of this resolution Social Education, The Social Studies Professional and other appropriate outlets, including the NCSS web site:

1. To take a public stand as citizens on behalf of the values and goals taught in social studies and necessary to the practice of our profession; and

2. To do whatever they can to bring the Iraq war to a speedy conclusion.

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