Despite the widely-held acknowledgment of the the great potential of the Internet for improving social studies instruction, the available research tells us that most social studies teachers who use the Internet in their classroom do so without changing much in their traditional approach to teaching. This article suggests using the NCSS Position Statement on Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies as a guide to assist in developing a more structured and intentional use of this medium. An inventory of Internet use based on the tenets of 'Powerful Teaching and Learning' (PTL) is presented with examples on how each domain of the inventory could be used. It is hoped that the SSIUI inventory will help guide and challenge practicing social studies teachers toward a more purposeful use of the Internet, and provide a rubric to support a new level of research in Internet use in the social studies classroom. Through such practice the social studies may begin to move toward more regular, systematic and thoughtful implementation of pedagogical strategies that will tap into the full potential of this resource.

How elementary pre-service teacher candidates with considerable experience in clinical field placements identified, photographed, discussed, and categorized samples of what they construed as democratic citizenship education occurring within elementary classrooms was explored in this study. Candidates discussed an initial set of captioned photos taken in their classroom placements and categorized them into consensually determined categories repeating the process after instruction on citizenship education in a social studies methods course. Criteria emerged in their discussions as essential in characterizing democratic citizenship education; the ability of the event photographed to facilitate the individual student's meaningful understanding of an action taken, and the event's active involvement of students in the community. This investigation suggests that elementary teacher candidates' views of the democratic citizenship education their students are experiencing are accessible through the photographs they take.

This article revisits and explores the promises and challenges of reverse chronology history instruction within the the social studies. In response to student disinterest in social studies, changes in our educational culture that often value content knowledge exclusively, and marginalization of instructional time stemming from testing burdens, reverse chronology curriculum design focuses on connections, meaning, relationships between past and present, and the harnessing of history's explanatory powers for understanding today and formulating normative decisions about the future. Reverse chronology bridges more traditional chronological history instruction in social studies classes and issues-centered learning. Ultimately it serves as a pathway to ensure the aims and goals of social studies education are consciously and deliberately realized.

In today's global environment, social studies educators have the opportunity to expand their students' vision of the role of citizenship in developing a democratic understanding by adopting multiple perspectives on citizenship. Global citizenship education is becoming an important component in citizenship education inmany countries. However, unlike their colleagues in Europe or Asia, US teachers are still less enthusiastic about incorporating global citizenship perspectives into their instruction. This paper describes the obstacles that prevent social studies teachers from using global citizenship perspectives. It also explores whether stateacademic standards in social studies provide sufficient curricular guidance for global citizenship education.

This article examines a case of curriculum conflict in order to understand how the social studies curriculum is changed by such conflicts. In the case, a small group of activists challenged a local sixth grade history curriculum, which claimed that WWII internment of Japanese Americans was a mistake. Activists claimed that the internment was motivated by military necessity, and they wanted the social studies curriculum to include this perspective. Eleven semi-structured interviews with curriculum challengers and supporters were analyzed deploying a sociological lens called frame analysis. Findings suggest that the historical context of the community set the stage for the social studies curriculum conflict. The success of challengers to change curriculum depended on their ability to construct frames that aligned with professional educators and the community where the curriculum was taught.