Becoming an Elementary Social Studies Teacher: A Study of Perspectives

Student teachers' perspectives toward social studies education are analyzed in this paper. Sixteen elementary-level student teachers were selected at two university teacher education programs. One year's observations and interviews with the student teachers and their colleagues provided the data. The 16 participants held one or more of six perspectives. They viewed social studies as a nonsubject, as human relations, as citizenship indoctrination, as school knowledge, as the integrative core of the elementary curriculum, and as education for social action. A case study of a representative student illustrated the complexity of how perspectives develop. These findings suggested that official conceptions of social studies have little to do with student teachers' beliefs and actions in the classroom and that methods courses should address this discrepancy.