In graduate school, we discussed social studies as a field of study. Our professor drew an umbrella on the whiteboard and wrote social studies above it. The professor then wrote the other social studies subjects under each spine of the umbrella.

The discussion that ensued was enlightening and I was surprised at how many people in my class looked at each subject separately. People seem to assume that each subject needs to be taught completely isolated in order to be understood.

But these aren’t competing subjects. History, government, economics, geography, etc. These all need to have a solid foundation of understanding in order to be truly successful in social studies.

Integrated. It’s simple.

Integrated social studies bring multiple concentrations into one social studies classroom.

History is the king of all social studies classrooms and it is the easiest way to illustrate what an integrated social studies approach looks like.

It is imperitive to have a foundational understanding of basic government functions in order to understand what the heck was going on in history. Monarchy, democracy, authoratarian – nothing can be understood if you don’t know the difference and the different expectations for society in each.

Adding another layer is understanding economics. How does money work? Banking? How does an economic system interact with the government? How do people react to major changes to the government and possibly the economic system? Depending on the history class you are taking, you will need to have knowledge of the many different economic concepts.

Feudalism is a good example. Students will learn about this during their medieval studies but they also need to learn about sociology and the social rankings and roles in medieval Europe. These ranks and roles have a direct impact on the economics of the time. Paid labor, forced labor, coerced labor all had implications on society and had major implications for each social group. It also made a difference in how the government functioned.

How do societies with aggressive neighbors behave? What about societies with pleasant neighbors? What about societies in chaos? Or societies that plunge into chaos? How does a government react? How does an economic system react? The answers vary depending on things like geography, racial/ethnic/religious backgrounds, and even psychology. And yes, a good history class would require students to discuss all of these elements.

Integrating social studies is a much more efficient way to study all of these concepts. It is time-consuming, though.

The concept of integrating social studies applies to all disciplines of social studies: geography, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, psychology as well as the above mentioned: they all have their place in a well-planned integrated social studies classroom.

But you can integrate different disciplines into an integrated social studies classroom as well. Especially useful in world history classes, students are introduced to the history of mathematics, science, languages, music, and art.

Engineering is remarkably easy to integrate into a social studies classroom. Learning basic engineering concepts and spending time on important architectural details or machinery helps students connect to their world.

It’s hard for students to know why the printing press is a significant marker of human achievement if they don’t have a background on the institutions the printing press challenged (government, economic systems, religious institutions, sociological effects).

There are numerous strategies to take when implementing an integrated approach, but the one I think works best is to choose your own passions. Stick to what you like best. Students will pick up on your enthusiasm and appreciate the extra effort.

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