Syftet med denna empiriska studie är att öka förståelsen för hur lärare upplever det ämnesintegrerade arbetssättet i SO-undervisningen. Frågeställningen för arbetet lyder: Hur reflekterar lärare i årskurserna 1–3 över sina upplevelser av att integrera SO medövriga skolämnen?. Studien riktar sig till de lärare och studenter som är intresserade av att arbeta ämnesintegrerat med SO-ämnena och vill veta mer om vad arbetssättet kan innebära. Vi har genomfört studien på en kvalitativ metodansats och intervjuat nio verksamma lågstadielärare om deras upplevelser och erfarenheter av att integrera SO-ämnena med andra skolämnen. Vi har analyserat lärarnas utsagor utifrån det hermeneutiska perspektivet intersubjektivitet såväl som lärandeteorierna det sociokulturella perspektivet, konstruktivismen samt pragmatismen. Vi har även analyserat utsagorna utifrån det teoretiska begreppet KASAM. Studien uppmärksammar att det finns intersubjektivitet bland de intervjuade lärarna kring vilka fördelar de upplever att det ämnesintegrerade arbetssättet kan ha i undervisningen och elevers förståelse- och kunskapsutveckling. I resultat- och analyskapitlet uppmärksammas såväl det som gör att lärarnas uppfattningar och erfarenhet av ämnesintegrerat arbete i SO skiljer sig åt, bland annat huruvida de undervisar i alla lågstadiets skolämnen eller enbart några. Utifrån de intervjuade lärarnas utsagor för vi en diskussion i förhållande till tidigare forskning. Slutsatserna av denna diskussion är att lärarnas utsagor stämmer bra överens med tidigare forskning. Slutsatsen lyfter även fram att det finns både likheter och skillnader, exempelvis att huruvida de undervisar i alla lågstadiets ämnen eller enbart några, påverkar hur lågstadielärare upplever att integrera SO med andra skolämnen och vice versa. Studien avslutas med förslag på vidare forskning, där vi lyfter fram att forskningen kring elevernas syn på den ämnesintegrerade undervisningen är bristande. Vidare forskning som undersöker ett elevperspektiv anser vi hade tillfört kunskap och förståelse om det ämnesintegrerade arbetssättet.

This study examines how teachers view their teaching about anti-Semitism in the subject of social studies in Swedish upper secondary schools. To analyze teaching on anti-Semitism, this study develops an analytical framework that makes it possible to describe and discuss the content, challenges, and didactic tensions found in this type of teaching. The applied method in the study is qualitative interviews. Two main results were drawn from the study. First, the study shows that anti-Semitism is often understood and taught from a historical and individualistic point of view. Second, that general teaching about racism is often prioritized over specific teaching on anti-Semitism of today. In sum, teaching on anti-Semitism in social studies seems characterized by a notion of that the issue belongs to another time, place, or school subject.

Research highlights that outdoor education have positive impacts on students learning, socialdevelopment and academic performance. Despite the fact that outdoor education has a numberof positive impacts on students, we currently don’t know much about teachers view onoutdoor education in upper secondary school. This essay examines the experiences of teachersin social studies and their view of outdoor education. The empirical material comprises sixinterviews with upper secondary teachers in social studies. The theoretical frames in thisessay are pragmatism and theory of place. The empirical data collection was analyzed throughthe thematic analytical method. The findings reveal that teachers define outdoor education ina variety of ways. Although its sporadically implemented in the social studies course. Outdooreducation promotes teaching in reality-based environments where students can learn throughall their senses. However, teachers highlight that outdoor education also includes a number ofchallenges like lack of time, schedules and physical aspects. In addition, the results suggestthat teachers who have a thematic way of work can overcome some of these challenges.

The purpose of this study is to examine how five social studies teachers in Stockholm County incorporate gender and equality into the core content of the social studies syllabus in year 4-6.  It will also address the didactic choices the teachers make to transform the curriculum content into practical education. To investigate this purpose, three questions were formulated: 1. What do five social studies teachers consider essential for students to learn in order to address gender and equality in the social studies syllabus for years 4-6?  2. How does the written content of the syllabus transform into practical education; what didactic choices do the teachers make? 3. According to the teachers, what part does gender and equality play in social studies education? In order to examine these questions, two qualitative research methods, interviews and observations were used. The outcomes have been analysed using an analytical tool inspired by two previous tools used in earlier didactic research studies, which have been developed further and combined for the purpose of this study. The analytical tool allows skills to be categorised as either first order knowledge (knowledge based on facts on a specific subject); or second order knowledge (more general skills such as analysing skill, ability to see phenomena from different perspectives etc). The conclusion of the study indicates that social studies teachers find it difficult to interpret the content of the syllabus to adequately address gender and equality, and that this content does not always have a clear part in social studies education.

Students in a local rural northeastern high school have demonstrated decreasing academic performance in social studies courses for the past 5 years. The purpose of this bounded qualitative case study of the local social studies department was to investigate how social studies teachers and administrators for grades 7-12 describe differentiated instruction (DI) and professional development in DI. This study was grounded in the zone of proximal development, which stressed the importance of providing instruction at students' instructional levels, and DI, which emphasized tailoring instruction to address students' needs. Three research questions focused on how social studies teachers and administrators viewed teachers' use of DI and described the professional development training for DI. Open ended interviews of 3 administrators and 9 secondary social studies teachers in the local school who volunteered to participate , observations of the teacher interviewees' classroom lessons, and reviews of documents related to instructional materials or professional development provided the data for the bounded case. The data were analyzed in an explanation building technique which flowed from the research questions. The findings indicated that the participants had positive perceptions of DI, the social studies teachers used DI strategies with struggling students and wanted effective professional development training and resources for using DI, and instructors wanted more administrative support. The results of this study may impact social change in the local school by providing effective DI techniques to use with struggling students. Professional development training in effective DI techniques may promote collaboration among the faculty and improve student performance in social studies.

Driven 2 Teach is a privately funded program for history teachers in the state of Utah. The program emphasizes the importance of teacher travel to educate history teachers in the places where history happened. This study investigated the program’s influence on participant gains in learning about history and how to best teach about the past, social studies professional development, teacher beliefs, and changes in instructional practices. This study utilized a case study methodology, autoethnography, and six interconnected frameworks: Professional development, experiential education, site-based learning, pedagogical content knowledge, teacher beliefs, and professional learning communities. This study helps demonstrate the effectiveness of travel as a teaching method. Data from this study were used to answer the following questions: How do history teachers perceive their pedagogical content knowledge as changing as a result of participating in the Driven 2 Teach program? How do the experiences with Driven 2 Teach differ from other professional development experiences? How do history teacher beliefs about social studies education contribute to the changes in pedagogical content knowledge and instructional practice? How do these history teachers plan on changing instructional practices based on their new pedagogical content knowledge? The results of this study show that participants’ knowledge of historical content and how to best teach that content increased significantly. This study also found that more social studies professional development is needed in the state of Utah. Teachers’ confidence levels increased because of their experience with this program in regard to teaching history and social studies skills to their students. Participants, as a result of participation with Driven 2 Teach, are more likely to teach students’ skills using social studies content rather than merely teaching social studies through rote memorization. Participants want to incorporate more hands-on learning experiences for students, and use more primary source documents in their lessons. Traveling together to historical sites and other important places with other social studies teachers enhanced the learning of all involved and increased the retention of what was learned. Participants benefited from both planned and unplanned events, and had experiences that made them realize even more, the importance of social studies education and incorporating multiple perspectives when learning about the past.

This dissertation focused on citizen advocacy groups as an intervention strategy for affecting change in the policy process. The analysis is of a specific intervention in school desegregation policy by a citizen advocacy group. The purpose of this research was to identify the conditions under which a citizen advocacy group can intervene; the constraints to a successful intervention; and the attributes of a successful intervention. The case study was of the Community Coalition for School Integration, a citizen advocacy group which existed in Portland, Oregon between 1977 and 1980. A multi-method approach was used. It involved fifty interviews with members of the Coalition, school administration, school board and the media. In addition, historical and document analysis of secondary data and extensive literature review was done. The theoretical framework guiding this research was Iannaccone's dissatisfaction theory of governance, DIS/ID/STO/OS. DIS is evidence of community changed dissatisfaction reflected in voting behavior leading next to incumbent school board member defeat (ID) followed within two years by involuntary superintendent turnover (STO) and outside succession (OS). Rothman's (1968) models of community organization practice were used to analyze the intervention of the Coalition. The findings do confirm the DIS/ID/STO/OS theory of governance, but also suggest that community intervention is an intervening variable between the stage of dissatisfaction and incumbent defeat. The analysis of the intervention identifies six conditions necessary for community intervention: timeliness of the issue, financial resources, leadership, organizational support, staff, and media coverage. The major constraints were the lack of trust between the policy-making body and the citizen advocacy groups, and the political environment of the community. Attributes of successful intervention were: focused advocacy, multiple intervention strategies, and permanency of the organization. The impact of the citizen advocacy group's intervention is discussed, as are recommendations for future research.

Graduate

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This qualitative study sought to explore reasons why social studies teachers chose to teach controversial issues and counternarratives in their classroom in an era where doing so is dangerous for teachers and their job security, and how they go about doing so in their classrooms. The theoretical framework of this study encompassed the notion that the five selected teachers embodied and practiced elements of Foucauldian parrhēsía, which is teaching the truth despite the risk of doing so, despite not having explicit knowledge of this particular philosophy, and utilized counternarratives and controversial issues as a means of challenging dominant social norms to bring about a more just and equitable society. The existing literature suggests that their pre-service teacher education provided little influence on their decisions, despite the positive historical, personal, and democratic outcomes from teaching a curriculum exploring controversial issues and counternarratives. Five teachers were recommended for this study due to their reputations for teaching controversial issues and counternarratives in their social studies classrooms. After interviewing and observing these teachers, a number of interesting findings came to light, including a list of best practices for how to teach controversial issues in the classroom, reasons why the teachers taught controversial issues in the classroom, structures of support and barriers for teaching a critical social studies curriculum, and differences between those who believed they taught controversial issues in their classroom but did not, and those who actually did.

The call of the recent Regular Education Initiative for special educators to provide support services to regular classroom teachers is echoing loud and clear in core subject areas (e.g., History and Social Studies). Special educators need to know the best methods for instructing learning and behaviorally disordered populations prior to transmitting the information to regular classroom teachers. This study asked questions about the relative effectiveness and efficiency of two instructional procedures: Direct Instruction with visual displays and Direct Instruction without visual displays. These were used to bring about the acquisition, maintenance and generalization of basic historical information for 41 learning and behaviorally handicapped youngsters. Subjects were from 12-15 years of age, I.Q.'s in 80-100 range, and attended special education non-public schools. Thirteen teachers were trained to implement four Direct Instruction lessons about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. Although significant learning occurred, results indicated there were no statistically significant differences in learning as a result of the two approaches. The implications for use or non-use of visual displays in teaching content area material are discussed.