Social Studies

Social Studies for the little ones help them to grow socially, to locate themselves in their geographic spaces and in chronological time, within the evolutionary process of humanity. Through Social Studies, the child can perceive himself as a social being.

The educator must choose age-appropriate methodologies and the concepts must be approached in a gradual and interconnected way, with respect to the stage of development of the child’s thinking and their experiences to work in this area of ​​knowledge.

More about Social Studies

To approach the intuitive notion of time, for example, the educator can use examples based on the activities that the student performs in the morning, afternoon and evening. As well as establishing differences between present, past and future; make the child realize that the milestones of the past remain in the present; provide opportunities for reasoning that it is possible to plan the course of the future; and, work on the notion of duration of time, exploring actions that can occur simultaneously in different spaces.

When talking about time, the educator will be able to explore the idea that man builds his history at all times, as well as the specific characteristics of each time and place and the concept that the human species relates to nature and from it appropriates, creating differentiated spaces and producing wealth.

The educator can give students the opportunity to observe the elements that make up the landscape: earth, water and air; the facts of society and its interaction with nature; lead the students in the observation of statistics of production, circulation and consumption of goods; observe the distinction between the natural space and the cultural space; perform analysis of different spaces (home, school, neighborhood, etc.); the interdependencies between neighborhoods, municipalities and countries; represent cartographically, etc.

In order for the educator to develop in the student the ability to observe, compare and systematize differences and similarities that exist in the set of natural and social elements, he must explore the students’ understanding of the multiple aspects of reality, in order to provide them with the formation of a self-concept.

Other important objectives to induce students to reflect and analyze reality are: to establish knowledge and self-recognition among the group of people who live with them; perceive different races, social classes and professions; getting to know political organizations; encourage group and cooperative work; know the forms of work organization; analyze who produces and who participates in this production; analyze the distribution of wealth produced.

In short, when approaching the concepts of Social Studies, as well as in other areas of the school curriculum, the educator must encourage the student to think, teaching that: attention is a prerequisite for any activity, as the student will only be able to observe if you are attentive; observation is seeing with eyes different from those we are used to using. It’s stopping to see details, examining in order to find out. To observe is to start the investigation process; and the objectives of the work must be clear to the child who will perform the activity.

The Big Picture of Social Studies

Sociology is probably the social science par excellence. It arose in the 19th century as an attempt to explain collective dynamics, that is, work, classes and social conflicts or the progress of humanity.

History is the science that studies past events and one of its specific areas is social history, in which specialists address ideological and cultural issues from a historical perspective.

Psychology is a science that studies human behavior, which can be understood from a global perspective through social psychology.

Thus, in this discipline, collective feelings , mass behavior or the rules that govern culture are analyzed .

Social work is also another area of ​​social studies. A social worker deals with questions about the social services of the administration, benefits of the welfare state and research methods aimed at the whole population.

The concept of social studies also includes the set of humanistic disciplines, such as philosophy , ethics, anthropology, politics , art studies or classical studies.

Importance

We already mentioned that social studies group all those disciplines dedicated to the study of the social life of the human being. In this way, within social studies we can find all kinds of analysis and research on the human being and society . Its importance lies in the fact that these studies serve to know everything related to human behavior, its social structures and even its history.

The way in which these studies are conceived or named may vary from one place to another regarding the academic aspect. In general they can adopt other names or different definitions related to these areas of knowledge . Although in most cases it tends to include almost always the same basic disciplines with some variations.

In this way, the sciences or disciplines considered in social studies usually include: Anthropology, law , education , economics, philosophy, history, psychology, religion and sociology, among others. What distinguishes these disciplines is that they are not exact and definitive sciences.