Representations of social curriculum in pre-service preschool teachers. A qualitative research

The objective of this research is to evaluate the curricular competences of the students of the Degree in Preschool Education, after having completed the subject of Social Sciences Education. In order to achieve this purpose, we focus on examining two indicators: if the students adequately use the principle of globality that should preside over the teaching and learning processes of the preschool stage; and if they recognizes and identifies the curricular social content. For this, from a qualitative methodological approach, we have used the software Nvivo 11 and Pajek64 5.07, to analyze the textual contents generated by 224 students from ISEN (University of Murcia) and the University of Malaga. All of them were asked to choose a social content of the curriculum and to propose an integrated learning situation based on it. The research results show us difficulties in the identification of specifically social issues, and in the connection between contents of the different areas of the curriculum. Consequently, it is evident that a more exhaustive treatment of these aspects is necessary from the scope of the Social Sciences Education, which implies a better knowledge and delimitation of the social content by the future preschool teachers.