Journal of Social Science Education …

Concept of JSSE
Contents 2000-2003
Editors
Editorial board
Reviewers
Editorial Guidelines
Masthead
Service
Web-Performance
sowi-online Website

The Journal of Social Science Education contains articles of relevance to present topics. Before publishing all articles go through a strict peer review process to ensure a high quality of the journal and to offer sound information standards. There are links which enable you to understand and to extend your knowledge about the topics.

The Journal of Social Science Education is an independent project within the framework of sowi-online. There are four publishers, namely Prof. Dr. Andreas Fischer, Prof. Dr. Reinhold Hedtke, Prof. Dr. Peter Henkenborg and Dr. Norbert Jacke who are in charge of the journal. In addition there is an advisory academic council.

2/2007 …

2/2007:
Citizenship Education in Southwestern, Southeastern and Eastern Europe

The main topic of this JSSE issue is citizenship education in transformational contexts. The case studies on Poland, Turkey, Spain, Portugal and Germany show the diversity of goals, key notions, societal and educational cultures and practices characteristic for prevalent approaches to citizenship education. Moreover, they have not only inherent tensions and contradictions but are also externally contested. This holds for the relationship of human rights and civic education, too. All cases reveal some current impact of the authoritarian or communist past of the respective country. Shortcomings in teacher education for civic education are widespread.

1/2007 …

1/2007:
Europe as an Educational Framework: Cultures, Values and Dialogues

Europe comprises diverse cultures with different ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. However, there is common ground which is accepted, in theory at least, by its citizens and politicians: human rights and universal citizenship. This common base allows for and facilitates frequently controversial political, social and civic dialogue which is the foundation a common European identity may be built on. How education can contribute to construct a European identity is discussed in this issue.

2/2006 …

2/2006:
Disciplinarity and Interdisciplinarity in Civic and Economic Education

This edition presents papers that highlight main features of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity and of approaches of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teaching and learning which rely self-confidently on their own history, concepts and experience. Both, disciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and learning, face rather different problems depending on their institutional surroundings be that at universities or at schools. The contributions clearly focus on approaches and problems of social science education which is by definition an interdisciplinary affair.

1/2006 …

1/2006:
International Perspectives of Human Rights Education (HRE)

Human rights education is difficult because human rights are critical by nature. Human rights education (HRE) elucidates conditions under which human rights are violated. It enables us to measure policies and actions against human rights standards. HRE is about education for taking action. In spite these difficulties, the authors of this JSSE issue show, that Human rights education is becoming a powerful approach and is going to become a success story.

2/2005 …

2/2005:
Gender Issues and Social Science Education

This JSSE on "Gender Issues" places its emphasis on the areas of curriculum and gender research in the social sciences. Some contributions examine the relevance of gender issues in curricula of social and civic education and analyse causes of the still limited integration of gender issues. Other articles demonstrate the relevance of gender for the analysis of social, political and economic structures and cultural contexts in connection with the accelerated change of modern societies. What waits to be done is a gender mainstreaming of the social and civic education curriculum.

Special Edition 2005 …

Special Edition:
European Year of Citizenship through Education

The Council of Europe declared 2005 the European Year of Citizenship through Education. Citizen involvement increasingly becomes an issue of public concern as citizens' support for political institutions seems to decline more and more. This issue of the JSSE discusses current challenges of citizenship, European citizenship, participation, knowledge, teacher training and citizenship education.

1/2005 …

1/2005:
Migration

Ethnicity and schools are in the focus of this issue of the Journal of Social Science Education. Whereas cultural difference is judged as desirable at the programmatic level, all pupils are treated as equal at the level of direct interaction. Hence, institutional discrimination of children with migration background is an unsolved problem. The articles of this issue refer to the new debate on transnationality and on linguistic and cultural hybridity. - Two papers are published beyond the main topic, one on education and ethical competencies and the other on economic education at primary schools.

2/2004 …

2/2004:
Constructivism

The didactics for socio-scientific education increasingly deal with constructivist models. In the meantime, the polarisation between construction and instruction seems to be largely overcome and a moderate constructivist approach takes shape. Therefore, this issue does not focus on the controversy between construction and instruction. Rather the point is to employ the complicated relation between construction and instruction for socio-scientific education profitably. We analyse under which conditions constructivist oriented (learning) tasks enable students to look into socio-scientific questions and to develop domain-specific competencies. Furthermore, we enquire about the potentials of constructivist teaching-learning-arrangements. In this context, we do not only discuss didactical-methodical, but curricular issues as well.

1/2004 …

1/2004:
Best practice lessons and lesson study

Best practice lessons ( Lehrkunst ) and lesson study are two approaches to improve learning and teaching culture. Both concepts aim at a reform of lesson culture and focus on teacher cooperation and in-service training. They are bottom-up strategies of innovation and foster teamwork of teachers to develop and improve exemplary models of lessons which are broadly disseminated and evaluated. Lehrkunst and lesson study are particularly aware of the problem of defining core contents for subjects related to the field of social sciences. This issue of the Journal of Social Science Education presents articles on the German, American, and Japanese experience.

2/2003 …

2/2003:
Country Reports

This issue of the Journal of Social Science Education continues the series of national reports on civic and economic education in Europe. Experts inform an international readership about the principal features of the field of social science education in England, Italy, Macedonia, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. The Journal will occasionally publish further country reports, in order to open the national cultures and discourses of social science education. By this, the editors hope to contribute to a development of mutual attention and transnational communication and cooperation in Europe.

1/2003 …

1/2003:
Civic Education

The international research about "Civic Education" hasn't been taken note of whereas TIMMSS and PISA got a lot of attention in the broad public. The research offers not only an impressive image of the everyday life of Civic Education in 28 countries but also verifies the place of Germany in the international middle concerning Civic Education. The articles present some results as an example of this important study. The articles introduce Greece, the United States, Germany, Portugal, Norway, Australia, and Cyprus. Despite of all differences the distance of young people to politics is a shared problem amongst other democratic systems.

2/2002 …

2/2002:
Civic and Economic Education in Europe

The issue concentrates on reporting about the political and economic education in Europe. Six country reports of Germany, France, and Greece are the starting point of a series of reports about the political and economic education. They are addressed to foreign readers to inform them about the principles of civic education in the respective countries. Its aim is to open up the closed national education societies and discourses and to provide basic knowledge about other countries across the border. The publisher hopes to facilitate mutual attention, exchange of information, international communication, and cooperation.

1/2002 …

1/2002:
Globalisierung - Globalisation

The term globalisation hints at economic, informational and communicable developments which qualify geographical and social distance. Man, ideas organisations, and goods get over borders of space, time and nations easier and more often. At the same time there is a thesis connected to globalisation which implies that in the course of intensified economic competition in the international context the conventional level of national sovereignty, welfare state and economic and working conditions can no longer be kept. Even the education has to conform to the condition of globalisation. It is disputed, whether, in which respect and to which extent this diagnosis of globalisation is right.

Phenomena, reasons and consequences are dealt with and discussed deeply in sociology, politics and economics as well as in the social science subjects. Globalisation is a key topic in the political discourse. That is reason enough to deal with the thematic complex of globalisation in Social Science Education.

2/2001 …

2/2001:
"Welche �konomische Bildung wollen wir?"

There is shared consent that economic general education is necessary. It is currently discussed how it should be organised at school. There is more silence than discussion about which conceptual ideal economic education should follow. For this reason the current issues deals with the central question "Which education do we want?" Articles refer to the "image of education" ("Bildungsidee"), the model of an economic general education, referring disciplines of the didactics of economic education and its paradigm as well as the relation of economic education and the learning subjects.

1/2001 …

1/2001:
�konomische und politische Bildung …

This issue deals with two central didactic problems, firstly, the purification of the relationship between political and economic education and its didactics. Secondly, it covers the problem whether and how overall subjects and integrated learning in the field of economic and political education can be conceptualised and realised. There are two important questions: Is economic learning without politics and politics without economic learning sensible? How does political learning get the necessary economic elements? How does economic learning get its political basis? In brief, where, when and how should the economic and political learning processes be connected? The articles pick out the old and still disputed question of an appropriate concept as regards to content and institution for the social science learning field or the social science learning fields.

1/2000 …

1/2000:
Nachhaltigkeit

Against the background of sustainability there are calls for justice through generations, justice in distribution within a generation and a unity of economic, ecologic and social developments. The articles focus on different aspects and levels of sustainability. In general it is firstly about the communicative problem of the sustainability model in public, secondly, the image of man in a sustainable economy and thirdly, the importance of universities in the development of sustainability. Individual problems are discussed as (a) terms and indicators of sustainable economic actions, (b) the possibility of a formation of a sustainable development in the fields of economic education, (c) the global perspective of an education of sustainable development, as well as (d) the didactic relevance of the discussion of sustainability.

0/2000 …

0/2000:
Reform der Lehrerbildung?

In this pilot scheme of the Online Journal of Social Science Education most articles concentrate on the "Reform of teachers' education". The focus lies on the problematic connection of practical relevance of the education and the ability of professional actions on the job. Despite all differences all articles have in common that firstly, professional actions of teachers rely on academic knowledge. Secondly, an arrangement of science and practice is seen as a difficult and until now unresolved or insoluble problem in the first phase. In this regard all articles distance themselves from the common call for intensifying practical experience in university teacher education but insist on the concept of professionalism (against the call of broad variation).