Teaching the Social Studies through
Your Local Community
It is a paradox that the government that is closest to students
and their families is the least known to them. –John Dewey1***
Anthony J. Filipovitch and Talip Ozturk
There is no better site for political or democratic action than the school itself and the students'
own community, according to educational philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952). Learning about
local government provides students with authentic examples of democratic processes and
institutions that shape their daily lives. Getting involved in local issues, particularly through
service learning, offers students experiences in democratic participation with adults and peers in
their community.
As natural and desirable as it might be to teach about the local community in civics education,
most textbooks give it maybe a section of a chapter on “state and local government.” Resources
available on the internet can help fill the gap, and we describe some of the better ones here.
Online Resources for Teaching Local Government
The International City/County Management Association (www.icma.org) has been working for a
number of years to overcome this problem. As part of its “Next Generation Initiative,” the
association has a “School Curricula on Local Government” webpage
(http://icma.org/en/icma/career_network/education/civics_education ) that links to other, statebased websites for local government curriculum. Here are four of the best that offer free, online
materials with activities that teachers could adapt for other states:
* The Civics Institute
“Curricula for Teachers”
http://michigantownships.org/curricula.asp
These curricula, developed by the Civics Institute and administered by the Michigan Townships
Association, is dedicated to lesson plans about state and local government for elementary, middle,
and high school levels. There are 13 units devoted to local government, submitted by secondary
school teachers, seven units for middle school teachers, and two detailed lesson plans for middle
school. Although they have a Michigan slant, almost all could easily be adapted to other states. The
lesson plans range from types of government, justice and legal issues, to local government funding,
employment, and services.
* Minnesota City/County Management Association
“Special Initiatives: Educational Initiatives: K-12 Educational Materials.”
http://www.mncma.org/
This site includes 26 lesson plans in Geography, Economics, and Government/Citizenship. While
the plans are keyed to the Minnesota Secondary Academic Standards in History and the Social
Studies, many also reference the NCSS Standards for the Social Studies. The website is not easy to
navigate. Click on the “Committees and Initiatives” link in the left margin. Then click on the
“Special Initiatives” bar that appears to get at the lesson plans.
* North Carolina City & County Management Association
“Civic Education Project”
www.civics.unc.edu/ncccma/index.html
This site provides links to the entire contents (8 chapters) of “Local Government in North
Carolina,” written by Prof. Gordon Whitaker. It also includes five secondary-level lesson plans
based on the textbook, covering the role of cities and counties, how they raise and spend money,
how land use decisions are made, how service provision is changing, and a lesson encouraging
citizen involvement.
* Foundation for Local Government
“Our Town, Texas”
www.ourtowntexas.org
This site links to an extensive collection of lesson plans (5 for K-1 level, 10 for grades 2-5, and 17
for the middle grades) keyed to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies and
History, and tied to the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Topics range from structure and
roles (form of government, mayor, council, staff, and citizen), political power, budgets, services,
and quality of life. While the lesson plans are aimed at younger children, many could easily be
adapted to high school students.
Background for Teachers
The ICMA also publishes a book, Investing in Our Future: A Handbook for Teaching Local
Government, aimed at encouraging local government professionals to get involved in the schools. It
has chapters on topics such as how to get involved, what to do as a guest speaker in a classroom,
setting up a speakers’ bureau or facilities tours at the city, and a beginner’s guide to designing
lesson plans. The book also includes chapters with suggested activities for the various grade
levels, designing “youth in government” programs, classroom materials, a (now somewhat dated)
list of resources, and sample quizzes and simulation exercises for teaching local government.
In the last 20 years, there have been other books and articles in the education journals about
teaching local government, some of which we have listed in a Note.2***
More Resources
In addition to the Internet resources listed above (with links at the ICMA website), here are two
other very useful websites that we’d like to recommend.
* Constitutional Rights Foundation
“CityWorks”
www.crf-usa.org/cityworks/cityworks.html
CRF is a nonprofit , nonpartisan, community-based organization dedicated to educating young
people about the importance of civic participation in a democratic society. CRF is perhaps best
known for their mock trial program. Much of their work focuses on national issues, but they do
publish a standards-based local government curriculum called CityWorks. The text inserts the
students in a fictional city, Central Heights, through which they learn about the functions of local
government and public policy issues (economy, crime and safety). There are activities and
assignments for applying the text to the local community and engaging the students in service
learning activities.
* Public Achievement
“Building Worlds, Transforming Lives, Making History”
www.publicachievement.org
Public Achievement is a civic engagement project of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at
the Augsburg College in Minnesota. The core concepts are explained both on the website and in a
printed manual, “Building Worlds, Transforming Lives, Making History.” At its heart, the project is
a learning-by-doing activity in which participants form small teams to address some community
issue (“community” can be as small as the school or as large as the region). Each team deliberates
together, deciding on the issue to be addressed and the strategy to pursue, taking action together
to create a change in the community, and documenting the impact of their actions.
Social Studies Standards
We have paired some of the curriculum materials discussed above with the themes described in
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and
Assessment.3*** We’d be happy to hear your suggestions for additions to this list.
National Curriculum Standards Matched with
Classroom Activities about Local Government
Social
Studies
Curriculum
Standard
Strand III
People,
Places, and
Environme
nts
Lesson and
Organization
“Design by
Nature”
-- Minnesota
State
University
Strand V
Individuals,
Groups, and
Institutions
“Lobbyists,”
CityWorks, --Constitutiona
l Rights
Foundation
Strand VI
Power,
Authority,
and
Governance
“What Would
Happen If?”
-- Michigan
Civics
Institute
Website URL
http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~to
ny/courses/100/Nature.html
www.crfusa.org/cityworks/cityworks.
html
http://michigantownships.org
/downloads/what_would_hap
pen_if.html
Description of Activity
and Grade Level
A lesson that asks students to
assess the environmental
tradeoffs in locating sites for
buildings. (High School)
In this lesson, students examine
the legislative branch of
government and take part in a
simulation in which they role
play members of special-interest
groups and City Council
members.
A lesson on the structure of local
government and its relation to
the U.S. Constitution. (High
School)
Question for
Exploration
How are
historic,
cultural,
national, or
world regions
defined by
physical
features and
human
factors?
What are the
influences of
groups and
institutions on
people and
events in
historical and
contemporary
settings?
What are the
norms and
functions of
governments?
Strand VII
Production,
Distributio
n, and
Consumptio
n
“Who’s Footing
the Bill?”
North Carolina
Civic
Education
Project
Strand X
Civic Ideals
and
Practices
“Creating an
Action Plan”
-- Public
Achievement
http://www.civics.unc.edu/
ncccma/educators/plans/le
sson2.html
A lesson on how local
governments decide on their
expenditures and how they balance
expenditures against income from
a range of resources (High School)
http://www.augsburg.edu/cdc
/publicachievement/
A detailed lesson plan for
creating an action plan to
achieve a public policy objective.
(High School)
How are
community
priorities
reflected in
local
government
revenues and
expenditures?
How do we
research civic
issues and
then apply our
findings to
formulate civic
action?
Notes
1. John Dewey, Democracy and Education (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2004; orig. 1916).
2. Ted Mitchell, “Working to Improve Our Community: Students as Citizens and Town Planners,”
Middle Level Learning (January/February 2006): 8-13;
Kara McCraw and Susan Taylor, “Engaging Students in Community Issues,” High School
Magazine 7, no. 8 (2000): 26-28;
Susan Walcott, “Fieldwork in an Urban Setting: Structuring a Human Geography Learning
Exercise,“ Journal of Geography 98, no. 5 (1999): 221-228;
Ann Rappoport and Sharon Kletzien, “Kids Around Town: Civics Lessons Leave Impressions,”
Educational Leadership 53 (1996): 26-29;
Joseph O’Keefe, “Children and Community Service: Character Education in Action,” Journal of
Education 179, no. 2 (1997): 47-62;
Tony Filipovitch, Clark Johnson, and Joe Kunkel, “Engaging Future Teachers about Civic
Education,” in Quick Hits for Educating Citizens, James L. Perry and Steven G. Jones, eds.,
(Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006), 92-94.
3. National Council for the Social Studies, National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A
Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2010).
Anthony J. Filipovitch is Professor at the Urban and Regional Studies Institute at Minnesota State
University in Mankato, Minnesota.
Talip Ozturk is Predoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Educational Sciences, Social Studies
Education Department, at Gazi University in Turkey.
Sidebar *************************************************
A Word about SimCity
The popular SimCity computer game is sometimes mentioned as a tool for teaching local
government issues. (There are many editions and versions of the game, and some of the earlier
ones are now a free download.) The game models a very sophisticated interaction among the
physical and social forces that influence the physical development of a city. In a few hours, a
participant can experience the long-term interactions between energy, transportation,
employment, housing, city infrastructure, and community satisfaction—experience that, in a real
metropolis, could exceed the span of a normal life.
For all its complexity, however, the game enforces assumptions that are more rigid than the real
world. For example, bicycle transportation is not an alternative in the game, although it is used
extensively in countries like the Netherlands and China, and increasingly in the United States.
Issues in the game are resolved through technical solutions, rather than a deliberative democratic
process, or a combination. It’s the city seen through the lens of the city engineer as opposed to,
say, the lens of a city councilmember, a community organizer, or the chair of a committee
composed of engineers and elected officials who are working together.
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