Cultivating a Holy Curiosity through Social Studies

When you think about the fields of study that make up social studies (history, archaeology, geography, psychology, economics, etc.), we see trailblazers. Philosophers and explorers, inventors and investigators, people seemingly made up of innovation and bravery. It’s truly amazing to think of those who set sail in search of new lands, made sense of the stars, found patterns from the smallest of clues, and those who decided long ago to record everything so we wouldn’t forget. With all that in mind, how is it possible for students to find those subjects anything less than captivating? I can tell you exactly how it was possible in my class. I often found that my students weren’t captivated when they weren’t curious, and often they weren’t curious because I didn’t give them enough opportunities to be curious.

In an article titled “Will You Be a Lifelong Learner?” David Mathis writes, “For Christians in particular, the stakes are even higher for cultivating holy curiosity and the mindset of a lifelong learner. Teaching and learning are at the very heart of our faith.”[1] This is not new information for any of us, we know how essential teaching and learning are to our walk with the Lord, but how exactly do we cultivate this God-given curiosity in a way that points our students to Christ? This isn’t a question with an easy or one-size-fits-all answer for the subject of social studies, as it holds so many different sub-topics, but I want to recommend a few practical resources that can be used right now. Perhaps most importantly, I found that these resources have the potential to help lead us into important conversations with our students about God, Christian responsibility, and personal transformation. These types of conversations cause self-reflection, opportunities for empathy, and hopefully the beginning of those becoming lifelong practices. This is a key part of transformational education.

So, back to our question. How do we cultivate in our social studies classrooms a holy curiosity that points our students to Christ? One way is to not just allow opportunities for students to learn from amazing historians and explorers, but to create opportunities for students to BE historians and explorers. So much of what we do in social studies classrooms is learn from the work others have done. Let us teach our students the methods those experts used and then free them to be experts themselves. For example, in either a history or geography class, after reviewing and practicing sourcing, assign students a historical figure from your target time period. This person can be of any age, gender, socio-economic status, historical significance level, etc. Give students the opportunity to then write a letter, editorial, press release, or whatever you think will best meet your goals for the lesson. Within the document, students will have to creatively include the answers to the following sourcing questions: Who is the author? Are they a trustworthy source? When, where, and why did they write this document? What is their perspective? Once they are finished, have them break into small groups to see if they can answer the sourcing questions from what their classmates have created. Class discussions surrounding trustworthiness and perspective can take many forms and are perfect opportunities to see transformational education at work. One of the best things about this type of activity is that you can easily increase or decrease the level of difficulty to suit your needs. How would students do if they had to answer all of those questions not from writing, but from only a drawing or photo?

In addition to this activity, here are some resources that can help you create opportunities for your students to be experts:

• Stanford History Education Group This is an excellent free resource for not only history, but many social studies sub-topics. You can find resources ranging from before 500 BC all the way through the 1900s which can help teach a number of skills including contextualization, corroboration, and close reading.
  Teacher Tip: Once students learn how to use these skills, they can make their own resources. It can be used as an individual project or to create resources for each other. They even make great test questions. 

• CommonLit This is one of my favorite websites for use in humanities classrooms. Literature, editorials, open letters, and poems can all be found here. This kind of creative view into a moment in time is not always easy to find in standard social studies textbooks. A free educator account will give you eight different ways to search for texts and access to resources across grades 3-12. All resources are also available in Spanish.
  Teacher Tip: Be sure to check out their Book Pairings. It was one of my students’ favorite activities.

• Canva Even though this is not a new resource, free features are added and updated often so it’s worth revisiting. It is very useful for teachers, but the main reason it made my top three is that there is a whole section designed specifically for student use. The resources offer a great balance between creativity and organization. It will give them just as many ideas as it offers.
  Teacher Tip: Give students the opportunity to use one of the group work collaboration templates. I would have loved to use something like this as a student.
  Bonus Teacher Tip: Don’t worry, there is a whole section just for teachers! You can not only create but also collaborate on resources, access a number of tutorials, and even integrate it with your LMS.

As Christians we know our curiosity will not be satisfied this side of heaven because while we can know God, we will never be able to fully understand Him. As Christian teachers we know that even the most engaging, fun, and creative resources will be useless if our goal is anything less than leading our students to knowledge that produces transformation. My prayer is that the resources above and any others you utilize will be tools that provide further opportunity to see God glorified in your classrooms. Ecclesiastes 1 tells us that feeding our curiosity just by looking to the world around us is madness and folly, but Proverbs 2 tells us if we feed that curiosity with God’s word, we will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

“Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding”

– Proverbs 2:3-6[2]

Andrea Craddock
Andrea works with TeachBeyond’s School Services department, providing our schools with support in the accreditation process. She taught social studies at various levels for four years and enjoys learning about how teachers all around the world foster holy curiosity in their classrooms. She loves going to see live music, reading, and taking her dog on hikes.