Social Studies Education and Social Sciences: A Juxtapose

Abstract

Social studies education is a discipline that has performed excellently well in the annals of human society. From time immemorial, social studies education has not relented in providing the succour needed to foster harmonious relationships among family circles, stabilize national harmony and serve as an adhesive to the multiethnic nature of the nations around the globe. Through its well-articulated contents, it has built families, empires, states, nations and the globe as a whole. It is imperative that the future of the discipline should be built as it has built a lot of humans. This noble disposition will ensure that its numerous benefits are continued to be enjoyed. A symbiotic relationship must be experienced between the discipline and the human race it has immensely benefited. Social studies education does not have its root in Nigeria, though it has come to stay in the country as well due, to its unquantifiable importance and benefits; it is a discipline that is eclectic in nature. Its tentacle spreads across all aspects of human endeavours; hence, it is seen as a panacea to so many evils that bedevil mankind around the globe. The relationship between social studies education and certain social science subjects like Psychology, Political Science, Geography, History, Sociology, Economics, Civic Education, Religion and Anthropology brings out the eclectic nature of social studies education for effective human capacity-building and national development. The paper delineates areas where Nigeria does well and where adjustments need to be made for an effective function of social studies concerning social science subjects. This paper, therefore, sees social studies education as a discipline that still stands the test of time and must be accorded the dignity and recognition it deserves.