Resumen de Service Learning in Student Teaching”: “What's Social Studies For?
Education for a democratic society has been a powerful, long-standing rationale for the entire public school curriculum. But the idea has special relevance for social studies education. This study examined the extent to which notions of democratic citizenship developed in the personal theory of teaching held by one preservice social studies teacher during a student teaching semester. The research posed the question of whether this beginning teacher's incorporation of service learning into his curriculum would serve as a catalyst to help him develop ideas about the role of social studies and what it means to educate for democratic citizenship. Though he believed service-learning was his most powerful and effective teaching during the semester, this student teacher mostly failed to connect what he learned from service-learning to his developing rationale for social studies. The results raise questions about the possibilities for democratic projects in teacher education and the supports needed to facilitate such work.
