The growing popularity in mathematics and science education of the body of ideas known as constructivism is a hopeful sign of renewed interest in educational theory and practice in the United States. This is especially fortunate for social studies education, which has been bereft of significant developments in these areas in recent years. Recent research programs of social studies educators are showing promise, but the nearly exclusive attention on the development of historical understanding fails to address the need for a broader and more comprehensive social knowledge (Ashby, Lee, and Dickinson, 1997; Barton, 1997; Barton and Levstik, 1996; Brophy, VanSledright, and Bredin, 1992; Seixas, 1997, 1994; Thornton, 1997). May (1992) observes that no one has proposed the “radical restructuring” of social studies for studying the social, scientific, and technological issues that riddle the contemporary world; she asserts that a postmodern approach is needed to “promote an ecological, moral, cultural, pluralistic, and spiritual perspective, an ‘ethic of caring’ and a critical pragmatism”; and laments that social studies educators have instead “been guilty of rationalizing and simplifying the most intriguing and complex human endeavors and problems” (p. 81).

Constructivism is a postmodern theory of knowledge with the potential to transform educational theory. Its present popularity in science and mathematics education, however, is no assurance of its enduring influence on education in general or social studies in particular. One need only recall how Piaget's work has been previously misunderstood and effectively misused to bolster narrow curricular ends (Egan, 1983).