Supporting culturally responsive practice in Scottish Initial Teacher Education: Reflections upon a transdisciplinary Social Studies approach

The landscape of Social Studies in Scottish secondary schools has changed significantly since the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence. A movement away from subject specific departments towards amalgamated Social Studies faculties in many settings has resulted in changes to how the subjects of geography, history and modern studies are taught with multidisciplinary approaches becoming increasingly commonplace. In order to prepare geography, history, and modern studies student teachers for a multidisciplinary practicum experience, a new initiative known as ‘Social Studies Immersion Days’ was introduced to their Initial Teacher Education programme. This paper describes the evolution of this initiative over a three-year period. A critical action research approach (adopting Kremmis et al., 2014 model) was used by the researchers as a framework to support a continued cycle of planning, action, observation, and reflection that charted and informed the evolution of the initiative over time. Data collected via student questionnaire surveys, tutor peer observations, tutor self-reflections and tutor team discussions across the duration of the enquiry facilitated this approach. This process resulted in changes in how tutors perceived ‘what the Immersion Days were for’, with an
original specific focus on subject specific knowledge and skills giving way to a more competency-based approach over time. In turn, perceptions of Social Studies as a discipline changed, with an initial deficit view grounded in amalgamation and compromise transforming into a subject were opportunities for culturally responsive pedagogies, sustainable competencies, and global citizenship find a home and where epistemic injustice and subalternity is challenged. This paper explores this journey.
References
Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., & Nixon, R. (2014). The action research planner: Doing critical participatory
action research. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-67-2