Preservice teachers' attitudes toward the inclusion of heritage education in elementary social studies

Abstract

This study explores pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward heritage education, an approach grounded in a vision of effective and creative history teaching and learning. The research was conducted at a large Midwestern university in the United States. Data were derived from both quantitative and qualitative instruments. There were initially 28 pre-service teachers, but 23 of them took the post-test and responded to the open-ended questions. Within the study, we used classroom activities and an outdoor classroom activity (namely, a field trip to a historic center) to introduce teachers to the meaning and purpose of heritage education. We found that pre-service teachers already had highly positive attitudes toward inclusion of heritage education; in addition, they found heritage places valuable and wanted to use such places as a teaching resource.