Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE - Universität Bielefeld)
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A Vehicle for Post-National Transformation or an Instrument for Interstate Cooperation? European Integration in Slovakia’s Secondary Education Textbooks
Get PDFPurpose: In light of the public resistance towards the deepening of European integration (EI) and the role that education is anticipated to have in supporting the process, this paper examines the conceptualisation of EI in lower secondary textbooks for History, Geography and Civics. Specifically, the paper asks whether EI is conceived of as a vehicle for the post-national transformation of Europe or as an instrument for interstate cooperation.Design: Drawing on the insights of EI theories and content analysis, the paper adopts a qualitative approach. Applying this approach, the textbooks currently used in Slovakia’s lower secondary schools are analysed as a case study.Findings: The findings are inconclusive with regard to the research question. Indeed, while the sources are positive about EI, the findings suggest some problematic aspects in terms of how the textbooks analysed conceive the nature of the integration process.Research implications: The approach taken in this paper could be replicated on a larger scale in other countries.Practical implications: Curricula and textbook designers ought to consider how to include a critical discussion on the deepening of EI in secondary education
Teaching Economics among other Social Sciences? The issue of Pluralism in the Struggles surrounding the Economic and Social Sciences Curricula in the French High School since 1967.
Get PDFPurpose: This article aims at presenting the original design of the teaching of Economic and Social Sciences (SES) in the French High School and at demonstrating that the issue of pluralism lies at the core of the various controversies surrounding it since its creation.Approach: This article is based on more than 40 interviews with SES teachers and key personalities, on curricula and official reports analyses and on a ten years participating observation in the SES teachers professional association.Findings: This text strives to display how the defence of pluralism has become a core issue to SES teachers, as a “mobilized group” as well as in their individual professional practices.Research implications: Such statements may be deepen in two directions. The first consists in comparing the French situation to that in other countries as regards the teaching of economics and social sciences in high school. The second may imply to investigate deeper about teachers’ training and practices about such issues. Practical implications: The other aim of this text is raising debates about the objectives of teaching economics and social sciences in general in high school in a context where school is more and more committed to strengthening citizenship as well as preparing for higher education and professional life
Review of the Book: Hawkey, J. 2018. Language Attitudes and Minority Rights. The case of Catalan in France. Palgrave Macmillan
No full textStudents Motivation for Social Studies – Existential Exploration or Critical Engagement
Get PDFPurpose: To understand what motivates students for social studies.
Design: Social studies as a school subject is defined in terms of its contents (knowledge, skills, values), by its teaching methods and by the organisational regulation of how students and teachers should engage in the subject. Student motivation for these components of social studies was examined in interviews with 26 students in optional social studies courses, and the results were analysed in a theoretical framework of motivation theory.
Findings: The aspects of social studies most clearly seen as motivating for students is that social studies offers more possibilities for student self-regulation, that it provides an arena for subjective, emotional engagement. Students are also motivated by subject matter content that concerns them directly or that evoke emotions.
Limitations: The data material only covers 26 students in optional courses in Norway. Further studies a-cross countries, comparing optional and compulsory courses, are needed. Broader data are also needed.
Implications: Didactical models and advice must take these student interests into account, as these are the pre-conditions students bring into the classroom. At the same time there is an urgent need to develop ideas on how to link these self-reflective, subjective students perspectives to social, economic and political structures and processes
Making ‘Good’ or ‘Critical’ Citizens: From Social Justice to Financial Literacy in the Québec Education Program
Get PDFPurpose: The Québec Ministry of Education has introduced – as of September 2017 – a new mandatory course focusing on financial literacy and addressing such issues as credit scores, loans, taxes and budgets. This announcement has created intense educational debate on the raison d’être and content of the course. This article will summarise the heated debate and will examine content knowledge and the type of ‘good’ citizens that the course seeks to create.Method: We use thematic content analysis to identify textual patterns and themes in the Québec Education Program (QEP) pertaining to financial literacy.Findings: Our assumption is that the QEP reproduces and shapes a personally responsible citizen at the expense of systemic criticism and justice-oriented citizenship education, according to Westheimer and Kahne (2004)’s typology
From Liberal Acceptance to Intolerance: Discourses on Sexual Diversity in Schools by Portuguese Young People
Get PDFPurpose: This article explores different strands of educational discourse about sexual diversity in Portuguese schools, from the students’ perspectives.Method: The methodological approach consisted in conducting focus groups discussions: 36 with 232 young students (H = 106, M = 126) in 12 public secondary schools.Findings: Students reveal a polyphony of discourses that gravitate between liberal acceptance, conditional acceptance and intolerance.Research implications: Attention is drawn not only to discriminatory processes that question school as a democratic place for LGBT youth, but also to the gap between what is legally decreed and a lack of know-how in the approach to sexual diversity in school
