Chapter 6: Character, Moral, and Values Education: The Foundation of Effective Citizenship

In 1994 the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) issued a new definition for social studies, declaring, “social studies is the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence” (NCSS, 1994). The specific choice to include “civic competence” in the definition of social studies was not a coincidence by the board of directors. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s there was a strong movement to bring character and citizenship education back into the classroom as educational researchers and law makers cited numerous alarming statistics meant to highlight the diminishing effect that the absence of character education in schools was having on society. NCSS increased the awareness for character and civic issues in social studies education. In fact, the National Council for the Social Studies position on these two trending issues contributed to the merged goals and presence of character and civic education in the social studies curriculum. The early 1990s was a time when social studies, character, and civics educator’s all struggled to maintain a place in school curriculum’s that were becoming increasingly focused on standards and high stakes assessments. NCSS would go on to solidify the relationship between character education, citizenship education, and the social studies with a position paper officially endorsing the goals of these intertwined fi elds in 1997. One of the most important pieces of this statement argued that: