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NCSS Conference Insights. Social Studies Literacy.

Kristin Rimal

I recently attended the National Conference for Social Studies in Boston. During one of the breakout sessions we learned about what the Tribute System was and what it was not during trade along the Silk Road. At one point, the presenter stopped and as an aside said, "Can we all agree to start using the word POLITY  during instruction when talking about any kind of government? 

 Do you know any new specific words in Social Studies that we should be using throughout the year? 

I know that using B.C.E and C.E. Is preferable to B.C and A.D.  

  • in reply to Kristin Rimal

    Here are the definitions

    community a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. 

    "the scientific community" "the sense of community that organized religion can provide"

    polity: a form or process of civil government or constitution. 

    "the civic humanist's polity" 

    an organized society; a state as a political entity. "the period in which West Germany was a distinct polity"

     a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. 

    My concern would be that polity is not that useful of a word. The WHP vocabulary is grouped by tiers. I'd put polity in tier 3 and community in tier 2.

    Any thoughts?

  • in reply to John Vidoli

    First of all, thank you for being willing to discuss this question in such detail with me. This is something that I love about studying history. Words Matter should be my motto. 

    It seems like the real choice between terms is polity, government, or state. The person speaking at the NCSS conference seemed be saying that polity is better than the terms 'state' or 'government'. 

    One aspect of this does make sense to me. My students have trouble differentiating between the term a state in the United States, and state, as in a nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government. Polity is a useful tern in this case. 

  • in reply to John Vidoli

    They feel like knock-offs of "nation" and "state", personally.

  • in reply to Will Nash

    But useful when you want to talk about a city state or a tribe or a clan, and a nation and a state. 

  • I try to encourage the use of:

    • "enslaved person" rather than slave,
    • "enslaver" rather than master or slave owner, and
    • "freedom-seeker" rather than fugitive.

    In APUSH we usually spend some time talking about why our language in these cases might matter so much. Usually sparks a pretty good discussion!