Integrating the arts in an inquiry-based social studies curriculum

Published in ConnectED Newsletter - Volume 9 - Issue 1 - October 2025
 

Prof. Gay Wilgus (Early Childhood Education) was one of approximately 50 early childhood faculty and students from around the world who recently gathered at the Artevelde University of Applied Sciences in Ghent, Belgium, to explore how the arts can serve as a powerful foundation for an inquiry-based social studies curriculum.

The group first discussed the value of inquiry-based curriculum, drawing heavily from Megan Blumenreich’s (2013) Urban Teacher Candidates Discover Inquiry-based Learning While Developing Oral History Projects.¹  A practical example from Mariana Souto-Manning's (2013) Multicultural Teaching in the Early Childhood Classroom: Approaches, Strategies and Tools, Preschool-2nd Grade: Approaches, Strategies, and Tools, Preschool–2nd Grade was also introduced.²  They then noted how, unfortunately, art, music, dance, painting, and other means of creative expression are viewed by many in the U.S. educational system as frivolous and are not awarded the same respect and importance as reading, mathematics, science, and other more traditional curriculum subjects. Nonetheless, as Robles de Melendez, Beck, and Fletcher (2000) argue, the arts are a universal language.³  Importantly, using the arts as the basis for an inquiry-based social studies curriculum provides critical opportunities for giving the arts the attention they deserve in the early childhood curriculum—as well as for other age groups!

Working in small groups, participants were given various artworks (e.g., a video of traditional Belgian music, a dance piece, a Magritte painting, and a photo of a statue in Ghent) to use at the basis for designing curricula. Emphasis was placed on identifying ways such curricula can spark children's curiosity regarding global awareness.

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1- Blumenreich, Megan. (2012). Urban teacher candidates discover inquiry-based learning while developing oral history projects. i.e.: inquiry in education, (3)1, Article 3. https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ie/vol3/iss1/3
2- Souto-Manning, M. (2013). Multicultural Teaching in the Early Childhood Classroom: Approaches, Strategies and Tools, Preschool-2nd Grade. Teachers College Press.  
3- Robles de Melendez, W., Beck, V., & Fletcher, M. (2000). Teaching Social Studies in Early Education. Delmar Thomson Learning.