مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS OF HISTORY AND PEDAGOGICAL ORIENTATIONS TOWARD TEACHING HISTORY

Abstract :

The purpose of this study was to investigate social studies teachers’ conceptions of history and pedagogical orientations toward teaching history. Qualitative research methods were employed in the study. Purposeful sampling procedure was used to select the participants. A semi-structured interview form was used to gather research data which were analyzed via the methods of descriptive data analysis. The study results showed that a naive epistemological view of history characterized the participants’ conceptions of history which were limited to the subject of history, the past, without including other important elements of history. Gender of the participants had effects on their conceptions of history and their perspectives on the purposes of history teaching. Male teachers’ conceptions of history were more nationalistic than female teachers’. When explaining their conceptions of history, male teachers tended to draw on such concepts as nation and national history. In contrast, female teachers employed universal concepts such as humanity, the past, and civilizations in their explanations. Whereas male teachers emphasized the importance of teaching national past and national culture to the young generations as important aims of history teaching, female teachers went beyond these traditional aims by stressing the need to develop students’ higher-order thinking skills. There was consensus among the participants’ perspectives on the place of history in the social studies curriculum. They all thought that there was a superficial treatment of history topics in the curriculum. Teachers’ instructional approaches to teaching history and the problems they confront when teaching it are also included in the study findings.