A Position Statement of National Council for the Social Studies
Approved November 30, 2022

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), as the organized voice of the social studies, overseeing and supporting the preparation of social studies professionals in the United States, maintains an obligation to provide appropriate leadership and guidance for efforts seeking the establishment and maintenance of requisite principles and guidelines necessary to encourage and support social studies professionals who are faithfully discharging their educational responsibilities.

In support of that mission, NCSS has identified six principles and supporting statements to develop and evolve the decision-making process of ethical social studies professionals who are endeavoring to provide socially just, inquiry-based, culturally competent democratic education for every student. These principles provide a frame of reference for all levels of social studies professionals to grow their practice, engage with content, and develop relationships with all educational stakeholders while working to provide an equitable and just education of democratic intent.

Aligned with the NCSS standards for the preparation of social studies professionals, each of the following principles elaborates and specifically states guidance for social studies professionals’ thought and action toward the goal of meaningful, authentic, inquiry-based, and active learning for the continuation of the United States democratic society. Eschewing mandated action, these principal statements are instead written to act as guiderails for social studies professionals who, as curriculum instructional gatekeepers, act within ethical boundaries—for themselves, their peers, their students, their community, and democratic society overall.

The following principles are established as considerations for use by all levels of social studies professionals in making the critical decisions about social studies education in development of ethical dispositions.

For methods professors and academics, these are a tool of course inquiry, the foundation for discussion or case studies, developed to prepare social studies professionals for modern classroom experiences.

For administrators and curriculum directors, they are supporting statements for the selection and use of curriculum, content, and course development.

For social studies teaching professionals, they are the considerations needed to make the critical choices in the development of curricular plans, implementation of daily lessons, and establishment of rapport with students and other educational stakeholders.

Principle 1: Integrity

Integrity is essential in a functioning democratic society, permeating all aspects of this ethical code. Holding mutual respect for others in all interactions and communications and being trustworthy and accountable for our actions are core values for life in a democracy. Social studies professionals should act with integrity, being honest and truthful about knowledge claims in their schools, curricula, and classrooms while working to model and demonstrate respect for the dignity and integrity of every student, the content, and the community overall.

Social Studies Professionals:

1. Develop and use authentic voices and materials that do not oversimplify, distort, or manipulate the truth—except as examples that illustrate how these have been used throughout history—to foster honest dialogue, using materials that meet accepted standards of scholarship.

2. Are aware of their own personal bias in both content and pedagogy, working to model the core civic values of mutual respect and honesty with oneself and others in relation to pedagogy, content, and materials.

3. Defend the rights of students and colleagues to access robust and authentic materials, striving to make available a balanced variety of educationally significant materials from which students of all ages and backgrounds can learn.

4. Respect and adhere to traditions and laws governing the reproduction and use of learning materials, always providing honest attribution of sources.

5. Engage with all educational stakeholders to share their instructional priorities and expectations through respectful dialogue on issues affecting their teaching and their students’ participation in school with parents, administration, and community, seeking appropriate input in balance with their academic freedom and professional responsibilities.

6. Assess student learning through means that are valid, open, and fair and that reflect course objectives, welcoming appropriate dialogue on their teaching with students, peers, and administrators and accepting constructive criticism.

7. Refuse to utilize their professional position and relationships with students, colleagues, and administration for personal gain or private advantage.

Principle 2: Justice

Justice also sits at the core of social studies as a professional career, acting to develop citizens and other members of society who understand how to contribute positively within the school, community, state, nation, and world. Through an examination of human and political rights, the distribution of goods and resources, and a consideration of various aspects of humanity, social studies professionals work to enable students’ opportunities to participate in building the world they will live in, analyzing the principle of justice throughout their lives. From teaching about the rights and responsibilities that members of a community have to one another, to justice-based content and pedagogical selection of curriculum and associated resources, social studies professionals have a responsibility to be aware of how they cultivate a just space for learning.

Social Studies Professionals:

1. Acknowledge and accept the identities of all students, colleagues, and other educational stakeholders as members of our modern pluralistic democratic society and as deserving of equitable education.

2. Teach and advocate the rights and responsibilities held by and among all members of a community, with a goal of developing habits of mind to consider ideas of right and wrong in their societal participation and life experience.

3. Create just classroom communities that provide opportunities for all students to participate in open discourse with each other by encouraging students’ rights to learn, inquire, critique, and express respectfully across and around similar and opposing positions in preparation for participation in the wider community.

4. Provide all students access to materials that directly engage questions of justice and injustice, encouraging students to assess appropriate measures of justice in various times and places.

5. Organize content and teaching to model a just society, promoting empathy, tolerance, care, and understanding of others, specifically providing multiple perspectives and voices from different dimensions of society.

Principle 3: Authenticity

Authenticity is important within social studies education, as professional educators should be honest and genuine in their positions and academic relationships with students, content, and community. Authentic social studies professionals enact democratic pedagogy, maintain the dignity of knowledge, and model civic responsibility in the classroom, always acting with the public good in mind while engaging in dialogue with others. They provide real opportunities for students to engage in deliberation that relates to the world beyond the school and to their own future society.

Social Studies Professionals:

1. Genuinely respect the shared dignity of all students in their classrooms, ensuring that each has self-determination to achieve success within our democratic society.

2. Select materials and resources that are held to an academic standard of truth, ensuring that the dignity of knowledge is upheld and never compromised for bias or propaganda.

3. Maintain an open and democratic classroom where students are free to study, investigate, present, and discuss relevant facts and ideas toward the pursuit of membership in our society.

4. Uphold the importance of honest and open student dialogue while being sensitive to the integrity of knowledge, allowing students opportunities to speak from their lived experiences to develop understandings of other members of society while also adhering to the use of inquiry and evidence.

5. Acknowledge when they do not have an answer and embark on the journey of knowledge development with their students in conversation with content, community, and self.

6. Are mindful of the humanity of the classroom, maintaining a focus on genuine acts of learning that are reflective of the real world.

Principle 4: Civic Engagement

Civic engagement is required for a healthy constitutional democracy, requiring social studies professionals to work continuously in developing knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors within their students to participate effectively in their own governance. Social studies professionals should represent these civic behavior skills in their classrooms, including teaching for the development of democratic citizenship, civil liberties, civil rights, and human rights, while holding true to the importance of active citizens to ensure the continuation of democracy. Social studies professionals demonstrate the characteristics of good citizens, upholding the dignity and rights of all in their classroom.

Social Studies Professionals:

1. Cultivate and maintain a classroom environment of inquiry where respect is modeled, power and authority are shared, discipline is negotiated, and students are free to contest ideas, think critically, and interpret and openly express their knowledge based on academically supported evidence.

2. Model appropriate civic behavior for all students and provide opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills, experiences, and attitude development necessary to function as an effective member of society.

3. Develop active and meaningful learning opportunities for students to practice being members of a democratic society, addressing the values of democracy including human rights and responsibilities, personal liberties and duties, and the dignity and worth of all persons.

4. Engage students in the broader school and local community to experience and participate in democracy in action including school board meetings, local elections, meetings of local governing bodies such as city or town councils, and local community organizations and interests.

5. Identify and allow students to be involved in issues relevant to them and their community for inquiry-based learning focused on critical thinking, communicating, collaborating, and taking informed action for an inclusive and equitable society.

Principle 5: Responsibility

Responsibility in the social studies profession relates to both the educational decisions made as well as those to whom social studies professionals are responsible. This ethical consideration occurs as social studies professionals adhere to a high level of professional conduct in selecting content and interpreting curriculum and pedagogical choices while educating for democracy. These decisions are made in relation to a consideration of students, families, colleagues, community, and other educational stakeholders to whom social studies professionals are responsible, ensuring that the decisions are democratic and just. Social studies professionals engage in due deliberation to ensure that the decisions made are in accordance with how best to prepare students for engaging as members of our democratic society while continuing the pursuit of their own professional career development.

Social Studies Professionals:

1. Develop and model empathy for all people, standing in solidarity with their students in the pursuit of authentic learning to be active and responsible members of a democratic society.

2. Cultivate positive working relationships with all stakeholders in practicing a democratic commitment to open inquiry.

3. Identify and participate in professional development, academic learning, and other opportunities to stay current and relevant with modern social studies content and pedagogy.

4. Engage in meaningful conversations with their peers about the impact of curricular and instructional decisions, being accountable for consequences while understanding their shared professional responsibility.

5. Prepare to address potentially divisive concepts in the classroom, providing opportunities to deconstruct and facilitate learning through inquiry to develop responsible, critically thinking members of our democratic society.

6. Advocate for the teaching of social studies at all levels of education, working to assure it is addressed appropriately and meaningfully.

Principle 6: Democratic Values

United States schools and students today represent many threads of a diverse societal fabric which exists within an interconnected local and global community. Guiding students to develop skills for effective and respectful participation in these pluralistic environments is an essential goal of social studies education, developing respect for persons, communities, and ways of life through culturally competent pedagogy. Social studies teachers work to decenter the dominant narrative and provide an inclusive and robust educational experience for all students that is both culturally relevant and responsive in its pedagogy, recruiting new perspectives and members to the field of social studies and always advocating for a culturally pluralist look at the content.

Social Studies Professionals:

1. Engage in personal reflection and self-inquiry to decenter their own lived experiences to better understand their students and to provide relevant educational opportunities in their classrooms that are equitable and accessible for all students.

2. Consider the cultural diversity and assets of their students’ backgrounds and identities to develop culturally competent educational experiences focused on bringing equitable learning opportunities for the whole classroom.

3. Ensure their classroom, content, and curriculum are appropriately inclusive and are analyzed with students to be reflective of the diversity of cultural identities, perspectives, and experiences.

4. Develop awareness of issues in the school system related to access, equity, power, and social justice, working toward an unrestricted educational experience as advocates for all students in their classrooms.

5. Model and use cooperative pedagogy appropriate to participation in an inclusive society within our social studies classrooms and in community settings, nurturing students’ membership in democratic society.

6. Consider students’ backgrounds and identities as part of the learning environment of their classroom, ensuring that their dignity as human beings is upheld and that their civil and human rights are protected.