Thesis
“It’s rote learning, but it gets the mark” : exploring Scottish history teachers’ (dis)engagements with social justice education
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2024
- Thesis identifier
- T16847
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202063429
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- The purpose of this study is to explore how secondary school history teachers in Scotland engage with social justice, if at all. In doing so, this study seeks to, more specifically, explore their understanding of social justice and social justice education (SJE) as well as how this understanding might impact upon their teaching practice. Further, this study seeks to explore what history teachers in the Scottish educational context see as their role in the classroom and how this might emerge in their reporting of their practice. Three instruments for data collection were used, including participant-created (1) identity charts and (2) Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) question annotations, and (3) semi-structured interviews. Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019) and Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) were drawn upon to analyse the data. The flexible nature of Reflexive Thematic Analysis and storied nature of Narrative Inquiry allowed for the exploration of the nuanced and complex nature of each participant’s experiences. The findings suggest that there is a trend of using exams as a mechanism towards social justice, which leads to a status quo of a results-focused exam culture for some teachers in Scotland, reinforcing a contradiction or access paradox where teaching and learning revolve around exams as a way to access social mobility. In this way, what happens in the classroom is bound to exams and offers little or no opportunities to interrupt this cycle. The access paradox posits that by helping learners to access SQA qualifications, which are achieved through exams and are a dominant form of currency in the Scottish context, teachers help learners unlock opportunities within the confines of the existing educational system, without necessarily problematising or transforming it, and this, therefore, leads to perpetuating the value of SQA qualifications. However, if teachers deny learners access to SQA qualifications, they contribute to their marginalisation in a society that continues to place high value on SQA qualifications. Participants recognised that the status quo of a results-focused exam culture is problematic but placed blame on the system, claiming that there is nothing they can do about it other than work within it, and this indicates what they think their role is in the classroom: to teach to the test.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Cassidy, Claire
- Govender, Navan
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2023
关系
项目
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PDF of thesis T16847 | 2024-03-12 | 公开 | 下载 |