This book on inquiry in elementary classrooms has four major parts. Part I, Social Study, explores the intellectual space within which social study can take place; what content is characteristically social content; and, what thought behavior is typical of study. Special attention is given to skills of inquiry relevant to studying social events and to the way in which the language we use may block or facilitate the discovery or invention of useful social concepts. Part II, The Challenge of Teaching, explores the social and political space within which teachers can maneuver because study goes on within a socio-political context, as well as within an intellectual context. This context is woven out of the interrelations of people, power, roles, and prerogatives found in schools. Part III, Tasks of Instruction, describes specific problems encountered in teaching and learning about social events. This section describes ways to work with children that are well within the bounds of the "politically" possible and the educationally practical, yet they stress an encounter with study that is powerful in its intellectual significance. Part IV, Speculative Resources, presents collected articles considered to be thoughtfully provocative statements by social scientists and schoolmen about the problems of social studies. (Author/AWW)