Who is Teaching Social Studies? Pre-Service Teachers’ Reaction

Abstract

In this article, the authors report the results of their pre-service teachers’ reflections with regards to observed social studies instruction in kindergarten through sixth grade. Fifty-seven elementary education majors were in enrolled in a social studies methods course at a university located in the South. Pre-service teachers share the type of instruction observed, comments stated by their classroom teacher about social studies as well as their overall perceptions. Reflections indicate social studies is taught inconsistently across grades levels, best practices were not used for instruction, and a trend in decreased social studies instruction. Thus, classroom teachers exhibited frustration because of these issues.

Citation

Mathis, P.B. and Boyd, N.C. (2009), "Who is Teaching Social Studies? Pre-Service Teachers’ Reaction", Social Studies Research and Practice, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 76-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-03-2009-B0007