This "Handbook" outlines the current state of research in social studies education - a complex, dynamic, challenging field with competing perspectives about appropriate goals, and on-going conflict over the content of the curriculum. Equally important, it encourages new research in order to advance the field and foster civic competence; long maintained by advocates for the social studies as a fundamental goal. In considering how to organize the "Handbook", the editors searched out definitions of social studies, statements of purpose, and themes that linked (or divided) theory, research, and practices and established criteria for topics to include. Each chapter meets one or more of these criteria: research activity since the last "Handbook" that warrants a new analysis, topics representing a major emphasis in the NCSS standards, and topics reflecting an emerging or reemerging field within the social studies.The volume is organized around seven themes: Change and Continuity in Social Studies; Civic Competence in Pluralist Democracies; Social Justice and the Social Studies; Assessment and Accountability; Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines; Information Ecologies - Technology in the Social Studies; and, Teacher Preparation and Development. "The Handbook of Research in Social Studies" is a must-have resource for all beginning and experienced researchers in the field.