Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE - Universität Bielefeld)
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Book Review: Introducing «Nye spadestikk I samfunnsfagdidaktikken” [New sods digging into social studies didactics]
Full text linkEducation for environmental citizenship and activism through the development of nature-based solutions with pre-service teachers
Full text linkThe use of nature-based solutions in the promotion of the environmental citizenship.
Nature-based solutions as a valuable resource towards empowerment for action.
Purpose: The study aims to assess the implementation of an intervention program that combines nature-based solutions with an environmental citizenship pedagogical approach for pre-service teachers. The research questions revolve around the educational potentials and challenges of this intervention. To our knowledge, no previous studies resorted to this combination to organize courses for initial teacher training.
Design/methodology/approach: For this qualitative and interpretative case study, data was obtained through focus groups. 30 pre-service teachers of the Basic Education Course (training kindergarten and primary school teachers) in Portugal participated in the intervention. The transcripts of the focus groups’ content were subjected to categorical qualitative content analysis.
Findings: According to the participants, the implemented approach contributed to the development of a better understanding of the complexity of the environmental issues addressed, and of critical thinking skills. The pre-service teachers recognized the educational potential of nature-based solutions in the promotion of their environmental citizenship and activist competences and of the pedagogical knowledge necessary for its implementation
The place and role of school sociology in Brazil and the contemporary context of the rise of the extreme right
Full text linkPurpose: This article presents the place and the role of Sociology teaching in the current Brazilian context, marked by the rise of extreme right ideologies and practices, more specifically by its ultraliberal economic bias and moral conservatism.
Design/methodology/approach: Organized in three parts, it outlines, respectively, the macro political and curricular scenario, and some of its unfolding in school practices. The main effort is to reflect on the ways in which school Sociology has been - ambiguously - understood and instrumentalized in the Brazilian context. The reflections are based, besides the literature review, on the analysis of the conjuncture and political-institutional directions, on curriculum documents and on reports of teaching experiences collected during the year 2022.
Findings: We verified that the extreme right advance in the public space is due to the articulation of two factors: 1) scenario of political and economic crisis; 2) structural aspects that guarantee, in the moral field, the predominance of conservatism and, in the economic field, the prevalence of ultraliberalism. With regard to education, the extreme right has had an impact in the definition of legislation that regulates the education system and on boosting surveillance and persecution in relation to teachers who distance themselves from their political ideology.
Civic education and defensive republicanism in France after the assassination of Samuel Paty
Full text linkHighlights: The assassination of Samuel Paty is an exceptional event that allows for multiple readings, but this presupposes that the facts and political processes surrounding the case are properly reconstructed. As presented, the study can be used as a starting point for further discussion and analysis around the question of educational governance of civic education in societies under stress.
Purpose: The Samuel Paty murder has generated a great response from the professional community and the world of education and schools in Europe and worldwide. In a unique way, civic educators expressed horror, sorrow, and solidarity with the family and with their French colleagues. The article is dedicated to Samuel Paty and the question of whether and how we as a community of international civic educators can learn from this terrible event.
Design/methodology/approach: The article presents a case reconstruction using press and public documents attempting to disentangle the actors’ positions, their stated intentions and contexts, and the following political intricacies of the case.
Findings: The murder of Samuel Paty provoked a series of educational policy reactions that have paradoxical effects on civic education in schools, seen its intentions of political-social inclusion into a citizenship model. The case analysis documents the pitfalls of the instrumentalization of civic education for the securitization of societies
Adolescents’ learning of civics in linguistically diverse classrooms: A thematic literature review
Full text linkPurpose: This article explores the interrelationship between second-language students’ literacy development and civics learning in studies focusing on L2 students’ civics learning.
Design/methodology/approach: The conceptual framework and the analytical tool in this thematic literature review consists of a four-field model in which the four key components of a. literacy abilities, b. disciplinary literacy abilities, c. prior knowledge, and d. content-area knowledge are in focus.
Findings: It is suggested that an interaction between the four components (a-d) could support the students’ civics learning and literacy development. Civics teachers play a crucial role in making the content knowledge comprehensible. Second-language students’ language- and content-related difficulties are better understood in connection to the civics tasks and activities that they work with in civics classrooms.
Practical implications: This article addresses issues of continuous education in civics for teachers in L2 civics classrooms
Teacher training for social sciences education and a democratic citizenship in a postconflict society: The case of the Basque Country: Date of publication: 07/21/2023
No full textHighlights:
Adi-Adian is an initiative of human rights and peace education implemented at the schools of the Basque Country and related to the experience of victims of political violence
This Adi-Adian initiative has been applied at Teacher Training School upon future teachers of Primary School
The testimony of victims has proven to be effective at rising the empathy and the comprehension of other point of views
Purpose: The Basque Country has been suffering political conflict and human rights´ violation for decades, tearing the social fabric. Human rights and peace education carried out through the testimony of the victims and their memory about this recent violent past can play an essential role in reestablishing the social understanding. This article aims to make known the experience of Adi-Adian initiative developed with the victims of the politic violence in the Teacher Training School of the University of Basque Country and asses its effectiveness in terms of critical thinking and empathy.
Design/methodology/approach: This research is based on group discussion and personal surveys focused on students´ feedback as a suitable method to analyze the way of thinking of students, their feelings and opinions about the violence.
Findings: The results indicate that these initiatives implemented at school might be suitable to achieve the goals of human rights and peace education and deepen on democratic citizenship
Testing economic literacy: an overview of measurement instruments of the past 30 years
Full text linkKeywords: Systematic review, economic literacy, measurement instruments
Measurement instruments often represent only one domain at a time.
The focus of test instruments is on querying declarative knowledge.
Authentic assessments are rarely being used.
Purpose: This paper analyses and classifies currently available English- and German-language measurement instruments for assessing economic literacy. It shows the content-related focuses and gaps of the extracted test instruments, the cognitive level of demand that characterises the instruments, the technical forms of implementation, and the extent to which the lifeworld contexts of test participants were considered.
Method: The PSYNDEX, ERIC, German Education Index, and GESIS databases were systematically reviewed, and measurement instruments were examined based on four perspectives of analysis: economic subject dimension, learning psychology, assessment formats and technical design, and authenticity.
Findings: Knowledge tests differ substantially from each other. Rather than representing all domains of the subject of economics equally, test instruments usually measure only one domain at a time. The focus of test instruments is on the retrieval of declarative knowledge. Measurement instruments were developed for adults and young people in equal parts. While some test instruments are related to the real world, authentic assessments are an exception
Civics teachers’ assessment practices in Swedish upper secondary schools: A qualitative study.
Full text linkHighlights:
Civics teachers assess a broad content, but there are some core areas.
Different cognitive skills are measured focusing on reasoning skills, characterizing Civics.
Teachers use a variety of methods, though written assignments are most common.
Contextual factors and teachers’ beliefs strongly affect teacher agency in assessment
Purpose: The aim is to qualitatively explore Civics teachers’ assessment decisions regarding content, skills, and methods in Swedish upper secondary schools.
Methodology: Thematic analyses of assignments and interviews of thirteen Civics teachers in Swedish upper secondary school.
Findings: The open Swedish curriculum and Civics syllabus enables teacher agency in assessment decisions and teachers do not find it necessary to assess all content. The thirteen teachers varied their assessment methods, which are mainly chosen from rationales other than measured content and skills. Teacher agency in assessment decisions is affected by teachers’ experiences and beliefs, Civics canonic traditions, and context, rather than education or curricular demands, except for a performative discourse focusing on grades.
Research limitations/implications: Though limited to a small sample in Swedish upper secondary schools and Civics, findings may be applicable in similar open/flexible subjects and similar national contexts
Financial education as a social studies discipline: the equivocality of the critical aspirations found in Québec’s curriculum and its educational materials
Full text linkPurpose: In 2017, the Government of Québec made a high school financial education course compulsory. Anchored in the social studies, it tackles themes like consumer rights, savings, and employment. This paper strives to understand the types of citizenship education they promote.
Design/methodology/approach: Our research is based on a content analysis of Québec’s financial education curriculum and its textbooks.
Findings: This paper reveals that Ministry approved educational materials focus on issues of personal finance and information retrieval tasks at the expense of a critical approach and tasks of a higher intellectual value. Québec’s financial education materials therefore seems to foster personally responsible citizens.
Research limitations/implications: To understand the use teachers and students make of financial education materials, we must now conduct individual and group interviews with teachers and students, but mostly authentic classroom observations