Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE - Universität Bielefeld)
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Metaphors as a Tool for Diagnosing Beliefs about Teaching and Learning in Social Studies Teacher Education
Get PDFDo domain specific teaching/learning beliefs and epistemological beliefs exist and do they explain a domain specific approach to teaching and learning the social sciences? This paper reports on the first stage of an exploratory qualitative study carried out at the University of Bielefeld in 2010/11 on pre-service social studies teachers (PSST, n=61). It has a threefold aim: First, providing a very short overview of relevant trends in recent research on epistemological beliefs and teaching/learning beliefs and presenting some plausible hypotheses on if and how these belief dimensions are related to each other in the field of social studies education; second, presenting and discussing metaphors as a suitable qualitative research method for diagnosing and analysing the teaching and learning beliefs in the field; third, presenting the general outline of the Bielefeld project and a comparison of two emblematic cases of the project to evaluate the potential advantages and shortcomings of the research design and methods, especially of metaphor analysis
Paradoxes of Social Rise. The Expansion of Middle Classes and the Financial Crisis
Get PDFThe article views the current financial crisis from the background of long term socio-economic changes in advanced industrial societies. Central points are the rise of middle classes, the accumulation of financial wealth in the upper strata of middle classes in combination with an increasing concentration of financial assets at the level of the top rich, and the advance of pension and investment funds as collective actors at financial markets. The paper analyses the interconnections between these developments in the framework of a multilevel model, culminating in the thesis of a collective “Buddenbrooks”-effect: a structural upward mobility of society will lead to an increasing imbalance at capital markets because a strongly rising volume of financial assets searching profitable investment opportunities will go parallel with a decline of the social reservoir of solvent entrepreneurial debtors. Therefore, advanced industrial economies are faced with chronic excess liquidity and export surpluses at capital markets, leading to the build-up of speculative bubbles and subsequent crashes. The author argues that the present crisis cannot be understood properly without taking account of these backgrounds
Exploring the Abyss. The Financial Crisis of 2008 ff. as a Central Topic of Problem-Centered Social Science Education
Get PDFThe financial crisis of 2008 ff. and financial crises in general should be a central topic of social science education because these crises are a recurrent and therefore structural feature of modern capitalism which has severe consequences for citizens’ quality of life. Hence, the citizenry should know how to prevent such developments which endanger its well-being in a massive way. Therefore, learners should understand the relationship between the quality of people’s everyday lives and those economic institutions and political decisions which have led to the current mess. They should be enabled to critically evaluate the current misregulation of the financial sector and the economy in order to identify possible policy measures to prevent or at least to mitigate future crises. By educating (young) citizens in this way, the (future) general public can – as a necessary counterweight to the lobbyism of the finance industry – exert more prudent political pressure which gives politicians a greater incentive to regulate the financial sector and the economy in a manner which is beneficial for the vast majority of the people instead of for a small elite. Two core concepts of the social sciences can be used to make the roots of the seemingly complex topic more understandable for learners: liability and inequality
Teacher Identity and the Marketizised Society. Discursive Constructions in Teachers’ Discussion Groups
Get PDFIn the latest decennium, there have been several and gradual changes in the Swedish and other European school systems. The steering system has become more decentralized and the entire school system is now a part of the freedom of trade. Schools are competing with each other and this has, according to previous research, an effect on how teachers think about, and carry out their everyday activities (Gerwitz et al. 1995; Irisdotter 2006). How teachers think about themselves, their students and the educational task is of great importance for the social climate of the classroom and, in the longer run, society in general. The current study dicusses how teachers‘ identities and self-understandings are influenced by the marketization of society. The material analysed consists of group discussions in three different teacher groups in compulsory school in Sweden. Questions raised are: Can teachers work within the context of marketization and yet relate to it with an attitude of self-awareness and critical reflection? And how can teachers deal with both traditional teacher values and progressive, democratic values that may be in conflict with the conditions of a marketizised school system
Norwegian Civic Education – Beyond Formalism?
Get PDFNorwegian civic education traces its origin almost 200 years back in time. Until World War II, its main focus was on constitutional matters and on the formal structure of governmental institutions. After 1945, and in particular after the 1970s, conceptions of civic education change. Among others, critical perspectives, political participation and democratic ideals became major issues. Have these ideas been able to influence teaching practices?L’éducation civique norvégienne s’est développée depuis presque 200 ans. Jusqu’à la seconde guerre mondiale, le contenu principal portait sur la constitution et la structure formelle des institutions politiques de l’état. Après la guerre, et surtout après 1970, jaillirent de nouvelles idées plus radicales sur l’éducation civique changeant le cadre de l’enseignement. Ces idées amenèrent une reformulation des objectifs fondamentaux basés sur des perspectives critiques, une participation politique plus importante et les idéaux démocratiques. Mais ces idées, ont-elles influencé l’enseignement de cette matière dans les écoles norvégiennes
Less Government is Good Government? Deregulation as an Undermining Principle of Financial Markets
Get PDFSince liberalization became the dominant global narrative the stock response to market shortcomings has been to “slim down” the state and deregulate. In most countries the slogan of “less government is good government” has become a constitutive feature of economic policy since the 1980s. Markets lie at the heart of every successful economy, and despite not necessarily working well on their own, the economic policy of deregulation has been one of the most persistent currents in the global economy. Based as it is on classical liberalism and – at least in its origins and leanings – neoclassical theory, deregulation aims to minimize the influence of the state. But in the context of the current financial and economic meltdown – the worst economic dislocation since the Great Crash of 1929-32 – “downsizing” the state causes growing turmoil. Global networking has made financial markets much more volatile and therefore much more susceptible to crisis
The Financial Crisis in the Light of Modern - Meta Modern Discourse: Re-Conceptualising the Modern Knowledge System
Get PDFThe main aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on today´s financial crisis through the Modern- Meta Modern discourse. It is argued that the debate of the financial crisis cannot be reduced solely to economic causes and that the deeper causes of the crisis are mainly philosophical, ethical, educational, and social. Most of the already proposed antidotes for today´s financial crisis (i.e. enhancement of the domestic financial system, emerging market and innovative products, better control of the financing system) ignore the deeper moral and educational crisis of modernity that places the responsibility for the financial crisis on citizens and their lack of savings. Meta-modernity opposes viewing citizens as consumers, as depersonalised, technically controlled objects of the financial and political system. It seeks more ethical standards in business, education, and politics and it encourages developing new perspectives for evaluating the financial practices. Meta-modern discourse supports the view that the financial crisis is a direct result of prioritising the interests of the power holders – banks and financial enterprises – at the expense of citizens’ well-being and value-based questions
The Epistemic Dimension of Competence in the Social Sciences
Get PDFTo investigate competence in the social sciences, we propose to define competence as a particular configuration of the learner’s cognition, strategic repertoire, motivation, and orientation toward knowing. Specifically, we focus on epistemic beliefs and on the changes that a view of knowing as a complex, effortful, generative, evidence-seeking, and reflective enterprise entails. In this context, we discuss how familiarity with the processes used to justify knowledge claims within specific disciplinary communities can provide useful tools to develop the kind of adaptive and consistent thinking that characterize competence in different domains and how this focus may aid the identification of characteristics common across domains. We use our empirical exploration of adolescents’ development of competence in the domain of history to illustrate the implications of this theoretical framework, to highlight the relations between domain-specific epistemic beliefs and kind of understanding that students built as a result of reading multiple texts, and to suggest what pedagogical practices may have influenced students’ orientations toward knowing in these three history classes