Editor's Note

Journal of Social Studies Research, Fall 1997 by Smith, Ben A

An analysis of the number of research pieces published in JSSR, relating to elementary social studies education, revealed the following data. During the past twenty years of publication JSSR has printed 45 articles regarding elementary social studies education, 29 articles regarding middle level social studies education, 52 articles regarding high school social studies education, and 45 articles regarding social studies education in higher education. Although the shortage appears to be more in middle level social studies education, a real challenge regarding research with elementary students has arisen.

Although the challenge is not a new matter, the issue of human subjects research clearance from research institutions may pose real difficulty for researchers in elementary social studies education. At least one individual proposed getting to know the students well and getting to parents for informed consent as a very desirable approach. The fact remains that there are students who do not have parents who are actively involved in their child's education.

Of the student populations that might participate in empirical studies, it is very likely that those student populations about which much information is needed will be the very students who do not participate in such studies. Their lack of participation is perhaps due to the fact that those students live in households with only one parent and/or the parent is challenged to meet the physical needs of the household children, consequently the parent/s are unable to attend to such trivial matters as a request that their child/ren participate in a study of how best to help students succeed in school and society. Perhaps an extraordinary effort is required in order to inform and include children from such households.

This age of litigation is perhaps a major driving force that guides human subjects committees to disallow exemptions of studies that are doing little more than attempting to introduce a new method of instruction to discover a more effective instructional approach. By not investigating the effectiveness of method, are we to continue with those in place or to adopt innovative methods that are unproven.

What appears to be a problem for those who wish to investigate a variety of matters involving elementary social studies students is how might investigators effectively work with human subjects committees. Has anyone engaged the question in a forthright manner? Is there a reliable manner of acquiring consent for students, sometimes from single parent or unstable households, to participate in empirical studies? This may be an area of research that is untapped and therefore fair game for an energetic researcher.

Within this issue readers will find the JSSR Index: 1977-1997. It is a piece developed by Barry Witten who has developed an index of the articles published in JSSR over the past twenty years. The Index includes a subject index to the articles cited. Witten's work is potentially of great value to those who wish to see what has been published in the pages of JSSR and those who may wish to replicate or review past work related to current investigations. We wish to thank Witten for the extraordinary amount of effort it took to compile the Index.

It has recently been brought to my attention that an article , "An Alternative to Traditional Student Teacher Supervision in the Social Studies: A Case Study," listed Elizabeth K. Wilson as second author and Elizabeth Anne Yeager as first author. That was an error. Elizabeth K. Wilson is rightfully the first author of the article.