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This critical case study investigated the experiences of ten White preservice social studies and language arts teachers as they learned about race and racism during the first semester of an urban-focused teacher preparation program. Through observation, interview, and artifact data, this inquiry analyzed how the preservice teachers engaged with the topic of race through the conceptual framework of critical Whiteness studies. This theoretical lens seeks to identify the normalized, oppressive practices of Whiteness with the goal of reorienting those practices in antiracist ways. The author identified two broad themes of transgressive White racial knowledge and conventional White racial knowledge to characterize the progressive and problematic aspects, respectively, of the preservice teachers’ engagement with race. The participants displayed transgressive White racial knowledge through the way they combatted deficit thinking toward urban students and through their knowledge of the mechanics of Whiteness and structural racism. They displayed conventional White racial knowledge through their stories of early experiences with racial difference, their use of subtle resistance discourses during race conversations, and their tendency to misappropriate critical racial discourses. As a whole, the racial knowledge of the ten White preservice teachers points to conflicted, ambivalent feelings at the core of their racial identities. Their desires to talk about race and to develop an antiracist teaching practice were mediated by competing desires to maintain their identities as “good Whites” and to protect their investments in Whiteness. The complex ways that these White preservice teachers engaged with critical racial discourses have significant implications for critical Whiteness studies, teacher education, and social studies education. Their willingness to explore race in a critical fashion should push teacher educators to resist homogenizing, deficit views of the antiracist potential of White teachers. However, their problematic engagement with race points to the importance of viewing White identity as conflicted. If antiracist pedagogies begin with this understanding of White racial identity, they can encourage profound shifts in the ontology, epistemology, and methodology of Whiteness. These shifts can help White teachers to develop racial literacy and to build an antiracist teaching practice.

The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers in the subject of social studies are working with and argue for their assessment of oral student performance. The questions of this study are: How do the social study teachers use assessment of oral student performance? Which work areas consists of assessment of oral student performance? What knowledge is measured during assessment of oral student performance? What arguments have teachers to assess oral student performance? Qualitative methodology was considered appropriate to answer the study's purpose and issues by using semi-structured interviews. A targeted selection was used and the criterion for participation in the study was that the teachers taught in social studies in high school. Differences as gender, age, and schools are also part of the selection process.The results show that all the teacher´s assessments of oral student performance are both summative and formative. They are also both formal and informal. Informal assessments of oral student performance are summative while the formal assessments also occurs formative. The results also show that the most common knowledge is factual knowledge and conceptual knowledge during these assessments of oral student performance. The most common cognitive process is understanding and remembering. All the teachers in the study describe assessments of oral student performance as time consuming. Assessment of oral student performance is more common in non-academic high school programs.The final part of this study shows that the assessment of oral student performance is summative, formative, formal and informal. There are no working areas that fits better for oral assessments, but when the teachers in this study describes how they are using assessments of oral student performance some working areas recur. The teachers in this study describe several arguments for the use of oral assessments. The most common argument is that assessments of oral student performance are part of the variety of examinations. Other arguments are that it will make it easier for students, especially students in non-academic programs or to reveal those students who cheat on essays or big writing assignments.

Carin Fröjd (2017): Tension fields in the education about values in social studies. An interview with social studies teachers in secondary schools about their relationship to the fundamental values in the Swedish curriculum Lgy11. This thesis aims to explore how teachers in social studies understand the fundamental values of the Swedish curriculum for the secondary school (Lgy 11). Although there are several previous studies of how Swedish teachers understand specific fundamental values there are few studies aimed to describe a overall understanding of the curriculums fundamental values based on the teachers perspective. The purpose of this thesis is divided into two parts. In the first part the aim is to identify the tension that can exist between different perspectives in the theoretical and practical research on education of values and sociocivic education. The thesis identifies five central fields of tension that is recurring in the research. In part two the aim is to examine how social studies teachers in secondary schools report that they interpreters and relate to the fundamental values of the Swedish public school. The fields I then use as a theoretical framework for understanding the teachers statements about their work with values. The result of the study suggests that the teachers are well based in the Swedish curriculums fundamental values but prioritise some values more than others. Witch values that are prioritised is very different between the examined schools. Since the Swedish National Agency of Education recently have been addressing that it is essential that the education for establishing values should be seen as a coherent mission and not be divided into parts or specific problem areas, I believe this work may be a relevant contribution. The result shows that some areas are more prioritised than others in the schools and some parts seem to be less prioritised. The first part provide a framework that can be a tool for understanding witch parts that is prioritised and witch are not.

The purpose of this study is to make an investigation of the place of the social studies in an integrating curriculum with the objective of determining their value and ways and means of using the social studies to achieve integrating individuals. Attention is directed to the need and nature of an integrating program, to the values of the social studies as an integrating agent, and to ways and means of using the social studies in this manner.

The purpose of this study was to search for relationships of certain personal characteristics (authoritarianism, philosophy of social education, and instructional preferences) of a representative group of social studies student teachers to measures respectively of a) their classroom behavioral traits, b) their classroom teaching activities, and c) their pupils' classroom behavior.

The problem of this study was a survey of social studies programs in Texas high schools during the 1964-65 academic year. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which the recommendations of the Texas Education Agency as outlined in Principles and Standards for Accrediting Elementary and Secondary Schools and Description of Approved Courses, Grades 7-12 had been followed and to obtain data pertaining to offerings, innovations, supervisory services and written courses of study.

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between practices reported by elementary school teachers of social studies in selected Texas counties and practices recommended by national social studies education specialists, and college professors of elementary education in selected texas colleges and universities.

Teacher education remains a significant issue affecting the quality of geography instruction in the United States. Teachers’ self-efficacy has been identified as a crucial factor for improving teacher education and promoting educational reform. This study intended to develop a better understanding of the relationships between teacher education programs and secondary history/social studies teachers’ self-efficacy regarding teaching geography, and other demographic factors that could be a possible influence on geography teachers’ self-efficacy. A quantitative research methodology was employed to measure geography teacher efficacy and to explore factors that influence geography teachers’ efficacy in order to identify ways in which preservice and in-service education might better prepare geography teachers. The instrument, the Geography Teaching Belief Instrument (GTEBI), used for data collection was an online survey that was modified from a Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI_A) to assess secondary history/social studies teachers’ perceptions of their self-efficacy in geography teaching. Data were gathered from secondary history/social teachers in Virginia. Critical influential factors, geography-related conferences (p<.014), approved teacher licensure education programs (p<.038), and years of teaching experience in geography (p<.004) were found to have a statistically significant relationship with personal geography teaching efficacy. Only the factor, years of teaching experience in geography (p<.002), was found to have a significant relationship with geography teaching outcome expectancy. Findings could result in better teacher education programs for secondary history/social studies teachers in geography teaching and lead to more effective curriculum and instructional practices in teaching geography, thus benefiting student achievement.

TITLE: Understanding of Society by Czech Pre-school Children AUTHOR: Nikol Tomášková DEPARTMENT: Institute for Research and Development of Education SUPERVISOR: RNDr. Dominik Dvořák, Ph.D. ABSTRACT: The society's need to teach financial literacy to children of as early as pre-school age is ever increasing. Since there is number of methodologies currently being developed on this topic, the author considers crucial to explore a child's conception of socioeconomic phenomena associated with financial literacy before these guidelines are introduced in Czech nursery schools for practical use. In this thesis pre-school children's perception of such phenomena as profession, employment and associated financial flows, as well as the concept of poverty and wealth are being examined. Theoretical basis of this research uses certain principles of the constructivist model of development and education within the general framework of pre- school education. Our work has been also influenced by the ideas of J. Piaget and L. S. Vygotsky, in particular by those on children's thinking and thought processes. As a method to examine the above mentioned perceptions of children, an in-depth clinical interview has been used. The interview aimed to explore not only what knowledge of the selected socioeconomic phenomena the respondents...