Teaching Social Studies in the Early Childhood Classroom: Nurturing Democratic and Global Citizens

This textbook develops early childhood teachers’ capacity to effectively instruct democratic principles to our youngest citizens. As our world experiences political polarization, pandemics, heightened racial tension, and the evolving awareness of gender and LGBTQ issues this textbook addresses those topics as they show up in the early childhood classroom, offering research informed practical guidance for pre- and in-service teachers.

The book is organized around 12 themes, 10 of which are based on the National Council for Social Studies’ (NCSS) themes, in addition to the anti-racist/anti-bias curriculum and gender expensive principals from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), closely following social studies content standards from across the United States. The themes covered are: culture and cultural diversity, history, geography, identity, gender roles and gender identity, institutions, power and authority, economics, science and technology, global citizenship and civic ideals and practice. Throughout each chapter you will come to know 5 early childhood classrooms and including profiles of the teachers, students, communities. These five spaces represent a variety of early childhood teachers, different age groups of students, and diverse communities and show how the lesson learned in each chapter can be applied in classroom settings. This book provides developmentally appropriate ways to teach relevant and current social studies content to our very youngest learners, emphasizing the fact that these very children will grow to be the next stewards of our global community.

Jean Kirshner is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Northern Colorado, USA.

Jenny Pettit is Adjunct Professor of Education at Metropolitan State University, Denver, USA.