JSSE - Journal of Social Science Education

Editoral

Jan Löfström — 2024-10-01

In this autumn issue of the JSSE, we are pleased to present five original articles. These contributions deal with social science education in different contexts and from different educational settings, reminding the reader of the heterogeneity of our common research field. Two of the articles deal with teacher training, two with considerations and understandings of teachers and one focusing on young peoples’ understanding of social issues. However, the similarities in the research contributions are also evident. All of the articles focus on the importance of inclusive, critical and balanced social science education in different ways and with different outsets. In times when democracy and human rights are being contested, it is important to highlight the role of democratic and civic education and what it can contribute with.

Citizenship education in teacher training: A systematic review

Noelia Pérez-Rodríguez — 2024-10-01

Highlights:

– Research on citizenship education in teacher education is a broad and complex field.

– There is a need for systematic reviews of the studies developed at the international level in which areas they are being deployed.

– The results of this review (years 2017-2022) indicate five thematic dimensions in the studies.

– The most frequent are those linked to teaching strategies and resources or teacher conceptions.

Purpose: The aim of this article is to present a systematic review of empirical research developed in the field of citizenship education in teacher education.

Design/methodology/approach: This study performs a systematic review, descriptive and critical in nature, of 62 studies present in the Web of Sciences and Scopus after a comprehensive analysis, using a decision tree, of what was published in the years 2017-2022.

Findings: The results show five major thematic dimensions in the selected studies: teaching strategies and resources; teachers’ conceptions; teaching content; teacher education programs; and design of teaching resources. The studies are unevenly distributed in the dimensions described, with the majority focusing on teaching strategies and resources.

Practical implications: This research offers an analysis of the issues addressed in research on citizenship education and teacher education, which allows us to know the field of research in-depth and to outline the less explored topics.

Ultra-Orthodox female student teachers' motivation to learn and teach global education

Nurit Chamo — 2024-10-01

Highlights:

– GE can be embraced by distinct populations with highly religious views.

– UOSTs' motivation toward GE is related to competitive-instrumental, social-justice, and personal factors.

– UOSTs prioritize local orientation toward GE, over global perspectives.

– UOSTs seem to assess the compatibility of GE with the traditions and norms of their own community.

– GE may be perceived as multidirectional and multidimensional rather than a top-down hierarchy

Purpose: This study aims to identify factors that motivate ultra-Orthodox female student-teachers to learn and teach from a global education perspective. Uncovering these factors may inform the discourse on integrating global orientations into education systems.

Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts the broad theoretical idea of global education while employing quantitative analysis.

Findings: Data obtained from 115 participants yielded three factors salient to learning GE: (1) competitive-instrumental; (2) social-justice related; and (3) personal. Motivation to teach GE was found to align with two main approaches, one locally oriented and the other globally oriented.

Research limitations/implications: As the study adopted a quantitative methodology, future research should also elucidate our findings using qualitative methods.

Practical implications: Stakeholders who wish to promote global education should consider that the participants’ overall disposition is congenial to global education; however, they interpret this notion in local and personal terms rather than as a global, proactive framework.

Between compassion, anger, resignation, and rebellion: Vocational civics teachers and their struggle to fulfil the intentions of the civics subject

Linda Ekström — 2024-10-01

Highlights:

– Civics teachers face challenges in offering male vocational students quality citizenship education.

– Civics teachers perceive this student group as vulnerable and in need of extra support.

– When unable to offer desired civics education, teachers feel angry and resigned.

– Civics teachers are willing to bend certain rules to support this particular student group.

– If this student group lacks better civics education, their future and Sweden's democracy are at risk.

Purpose: This paper examines how vocational civics teachers navigate structural constraints and their understanding of the challenges involved in preparing vocational students for democratic citizenship.

Design/methodology/approach: Using a discoursive psychological approach to analyse interview material, the study discusses identified discourses about critical policy analysis and street-level bureaucracy theory.

Findings: The findings reveal that the structure of vocational upper-secondary education significantly constrains civics teachers. Teachers oscillate between feelings of compassion, anger, resignation, and rebellion as they attempt to manage these challenges.

Research limitations/implications: The study highlights the need for further ethnographic research on teaching practices.

Practical implications: A significant number of Swedish upper-secondary students receive a limited civics education that inadequately prepares them for democratic citizenship.

Controversial issues in Norwegian social science classrooms

Anders Kjøstvedt — 2024-10-01

Highlights

– Research discusses how civic education may alleviate social inequality in political efficacy.

– Openness towards and awareness of controversial issues may play an important role.

– Teachers show significant differences when interpreting what makes an issue controversial.

– The political and epistemic interpretation seems more influential than the emotional criteria.

Purpose: The aim of the article is to contribute to an overall discussion of how civic education may influence the political efficacy of adolescents, with specific emphasis on social equalisation. We analyse how the inclusion of controversial issues in civic education may contribute towards increased social equalisation in political efficacy.

Design/methodology/approach: Our study follows a qualitative research design and is based on semi-structured interviews with social science teachers in Norwegian lower-secondary schools. Our contribution is influenced by extensive quantitative research, on which we seek to expand through qualitative exploration.

Findings: Our main finding is that the inclusion of controversial issues in civic education does not in itself contribute towards social equalisation in political efficacy, but that more openness towards and different understandings of controversial issues that are included may potentially do so.

Research limitations/implications: The scope of our study is limited by its size, but it should give some direction for further research.

Practical implications: We suggest that teachers may benefit from approaching controversial issues in a less personal way, favouring epistemic and political criteria rather than emotional ones.

Mapping elementary students' understandings of the police

Klas Andersson — 2024-10-01

Highlights:

– Research on conceptual change in civics is needed.

– Phenomenography is useful for mapping different ways of understanding a particular concept, in this case, the different ways elementary students understand the police.

– Civics teaching can benefit from mapping understandings of phenomena such as different social institutions.

Purpose: Investigate first- to third-graders’ understandings of the police.

Design/methodology/approach: Phenomenography is used to analyze elementary students’ understandings of the police as a social institution

Findings: The results indicate three qualitatively different ways of understanding the police. The police as: attributes, activities and as a part of the democratic welfare state.

Practical implications: Civics teaching that aims to develop students’ understandings of the police can benefit from taking the three different ways of understanding into consideration.