What Middle and Secondary Preservice Social Studies Teachers Know About Politics—And Why It Matters

• In Event: Roundtable Session 101
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching Civics and Politics in the Social Studies Classroom

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to better understand pre-service social studies teachers’ knowledge of politics. Much has been written about pre-service teachers’ lack of historical content knowledge (e.g., Monte-Sano, 2011; Nash, 2005; Sanchez, 2010), but considerably less is known about pre-service teachers’ political knowledge. In this three-year study of pre-service middle and secondary social studies teachers, I found students’ political knowledge was generally poor, especially when asked to provide information about important political figures and current events. Moreover, student interview data suggest most were cognizant of their political unawareness even though they believed effective social studies teachers should be politically aware.

Author

• Wayne Journell, University of North Carolina - Greensboro