Binford, Paul

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) was founding in 1921 to support educators from elementary school through university in teaching social sciences and humanities, including history, geography, economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, psychology, religion, law, and some mathematics and natural sciences. It has grown to include members in all 50 U.S. states and 69 other countries and includes a network of over 110 affiliated state and regional groups.

As part of his doctoral dissertation work, Paul Binford of Indiana University won from the Briscoe Center one of four 2008–2009 William A. and Madeline Welder Smith Research Travel Awards to research the NCSS Records, focusing on the period from 1968 to 1978. He examined the changes in NCSS due to the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s and the organization's subsequent retrenchment due to "conservative trends." To gain insight into the shifts in NCSS, Binford studied documents generated by and for the NCSS Board of Directors that demonstrated the changes wrought during this ten-year period. He also conducted interviews with several past presidents and other prominent individuals.

Sources:

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Briscoe Center Announces Four Smith Research Travel Awards. Press release, http://www.cah.utexas.edu/news /press_release.php?press=press_smith_recipients_2008, February 25, 2009 (accessed May 13, 2010).

National Council for the Social Studies. About National Council for the Social Studies. National Council for the Social Studies, http://www.socialstudies.org/about (accessed May 13, 2010).

From the guide to the National Council for the Social Studies Oral History Transcripts 2010-129., 2009, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)