Voices from the Field: Understanding Pre-service Teachers' Ideas of Teaching and Learning Elementary Social Studies

With the evolving nature of the social studies curriculum within elementary schools, the time devoted to teaching core social studies subjects in the elementary grades has been severely reduced. In this critical time of education, teacher education programs need to put more effort into understanding the ideas and attitudes toward social studies education that pre-service teachers develop during their preparation courses. In "Voices from the Field," Jill Marshall's research focuses on the impact that past social studies experiences had on pre-service teachers' attitudes toward teaching social studies. The purpose of the study was to investigate elementary pre-service teachers' initial and developing ideas of teaching elementary social studies over time. The findings suggest that prior experiences with social studies do affect a pre- service teacher's ideas on the subject, but that those ideas are subject to change, and the uncertainty that comes with learning how to teach does not necessarily translate into how pre-service teachers actually perform in the classroom.