Democracy, Social Studies, and Diversity in the Elementary School Classroom: The Progressive Ideas of Alice Miel

Abstract

Alice Miel, a nationally prominent curriculum development scholar-practitioner at Teachers College from 1942–1971, has been overlooked in research on the evolution of social studies education. This study examines her contributions to the practice and theory of children's democratic social learning and views her work as historical antecedent to current research on diversity in the social studies and the elementary school classroom. Miel advocated the development of democratic behavior as the ultimate goal of schooling. She applied theories of social learning and democratic principles and processes to the school curriculum. Her research on the importance of social and cultural learning, especially for postwar suburban children, revealed her conviction that human diversity was a proper subject for the school curricuum in a democratic society. She believed that children must be educated to deal fairly and realistically with questions of social justice, civil rights, national unity, and international peace. She argued that, at the time, there was no more urgent business in American schools.