This study investigates the status of social studies and the factors affecting student and teacher attitudes toward the subject. The underlying theoretical basis for the study contends that attitude toward social studies is a function of the interrelationship of student, teacher and learning environment variables. To obtain the empirical database for the study, two questionnaires were constructed. The survey involved a sample of and their teachers from government primary schools located in Perth. The findings suggest that social studies has a low status among students and that there is a significant decline in their attitudes toward the subject across Years 4 to 7. Middle primary students valued the subject: they felt it is important and useful, but by Year 7 students' attitudes toward it were negative. The research suggests that the reasons for this poor image and decline in status across the year levels may be attributed to the teacher- centred, didactic pedagogy and uninteresting content. Students perceived that teachers enjoyed teaching the subject, but themselves rated it twelfth in a list of thirteen subjects. By contrast, teachers rated social studies third: they enjoyed teaching it and thought it important. However, they did not see a need for more teaching time for social studies, even though many of them found difficulty in covering the skills, knowledge and values required by the K-10 syllabus. Teachers perceived that students enjoyed the subject and found it interesting. Students proved astute judges of teachers perceptions. However, the reverse was not the case: teachers were not aware of what their students thought of the service being provided in this learning area. The concern is that the low status of social studies, the dramatic decline in attitudes toward the subject across Years 4 to 7 and the perceptual mismatch between the students and their teachers about the learning environment impacts in a negative way on student learning in social studies.