Wade (2002) suggested novel directions for K-6 social studies in the United States, including a new framework for curriculum model focusing on vital concepts, questions to guide student inquiry, and civic action projects. These were based on the feedback by surveying 33 elementary school children, 62 pre-service teachers, 28 in-service teachers, and 11 social studies education professors. In this study, Wade aimed to review critiques of the expanding horizons framework, to propose new ideas for elementary social studies, to present reactions to these ideas from four constituent groups (elementary school children, pre-service and in-service teachers, and social studies education professors), and to explore the obstacles and challenges to transforming social studies education in the U.S.’s elementary schools.