Early Postmodernism in Social Education—Revisiting “Decision Making: The Heart of Social Studies Instruction”
M ore than 40 years have passed since Shirley Engle's article "Decision-Making: The Heart of Social Studies Instruction" was published. It was, in today's vernacular, an instant hit. It somehow reached into the hearts and minds of social studies teachers and gave them a sense of what made their field different from other areas of instruction. It was not just a question of teaching history or civics but of helping young people become effective decision makers in a democracy. There were numerous antecedents to Engle's article, such as Raup, Axtelle, Benne, and Smith's book The Improvement of Practical Intelligence (1950) and John Dewey's extended work in problem solving (e.g., 1910, 1916), but none spoke so clearly and directly to teachers-none reflected so well the incipient postmodernism of the post-World War II era, none opened the social studies