The Early History of the College and University Faculty Assembly of NCSS: A Personal View

CUFA, the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies, was formally established as an NCSS affiliated organization in 1969, Prior to that date, social studies educators from colleges and universities met at NCSS annual meetings, starting in 1965. This essay is a personal history of events leading to the establishment of CUFA and its refereed journal, Theory and Research in Social Education. Set in the contexts of the the professionalization of subject field education and the school reform movement of the 1960s, the establishment of an organization for college level social studies educators to communicate about their common interests seemed a natural development. Although there was considerable support in many quarters for such a group, there were tensions and obstacles that created difficulties. Traditions of internal conflicts between scholars and teachers, subject specialists and educators, and school and university faculty members of NCSS created problems in the effort to organize CUFA and publish a research journal.