March 3, 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of the National Council for the Social Studies. Wow! 100 years! In thinking about our past 100 years and what this means for our association, a range of emotions comes to my mind. It is humbling, inspiring, momentous, and evokes questions about what the next 100 years may bring. 

When we incorporated as an association, our purpose was:

“...to promote the study of the problems of teaching the social studies to the best advantage of the students in the classroom, to encourage research, experimentation, and investigation in these fields; to hold public discussions and programs; to sponsor the publication of desirable articles, reports, and surveys; and to integrate the efforts of all of those who have similar purposes through the efforts and activities of its members and their cooperative activities with others interested in the advancement of education in the social studies.”

Although this was written years ago, it still rings so true today. Our current mission (revised in 2018) is:

The mission of National Council for the Social Studies is to advocate and build capacity for high-quality social studies by providing leadership, services, and support to educators.

Since 1921, what has stayed the same and what has changed? Simultaneously so much and so little. We are still providing high-quality programs, professional development, and research to our members and the field at large. Our current mission statement includes a more explicit focus on advocacy but our core mission hasn’t changed.

Prior to coming onto the NCSS Board, I didn’t know a lot about the history of our association. In case you don’t know a lot about our history I want to share a timeline of NCSS history and an overview article, NCSS: Building a Century-Old Bridge (Clyde & Clabough). These are great reminders of how far we’ve come and the work we still need to do. 
I am most thinking about what the future holds for our association and the field of social studies. I am thinking about the questions we should be asking ourselves at our 100th anniversary. So, please indulge me in an activity. 

Both in the classroom and when delivering professional development I frequently use the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) from the Right Question Institute in order to develop better questions. Here are the steps to do the QFT:

As we celebrate our anniversary, we will be working to generate and simultaneously collect these kinds of questions to hear from you, our members, about the next 100 years. At our 100th Anniversary Conference, for example, we will dig into the conference theme, Democracy Ready. What does it mean to be democracy ready? Whose voices are being left out? And even, why is democracy ready the theme for our 100th anniversary conference?

We will also be thinking about: What do we need to do as an association and as a field to advance social studies? How can we best realize our vision and mission? Share your own questions with me @srwteacher or NCSS @NCSSNetwork.

Stefanie Wager

NCSS President

March 23, 2021