Teachers in training and the goals of social science education

This article originates from the results of a research project on the social representations about the goals of social science education by a group of students training to be teachers in this field. The article suggests that their representations show a wide spectrum of concepts, corresponding to multiple perspectives of social sciences. It also presents some suggestions to qualify initial teacher training in the social sciences. The main goal of this research project was to explore and to understand the purposes of teaching social sciences according to a group of future teachers in this field. Theoretically, it used the framework of critical theory and the concept of social sciences didactic transposition. The study was conducted with 50 undergraduate students at a public university in Colombia. Methodologically, it fallowed a qualitative approach mainly, although a mix of data collection and analysis methods were used.