Social Sciences in Elementary Education: Content and Methodology
Tema 3. Justification: The need for social science content in elementary education. First, it is used for the purposes of Stage 1, which is to promote children’s socialization, encourage their cultural integration, and contribute to their progressive autonomy of action in their environment (MEC, Ed. Primaria). Therefore, content from different social sciences is required for three reasons: 1. To socialize children; 2. To incorporate them into the culture; 3. To help them integrate consciously and actively into both their physical and natural, social, and cultural environments.
Setup and presence of CCSS Ed. Primaria content. The CCSS content for this stage is part of the Knowledge of the Natural, Social, and Cultural area, grouping the contents of Natural Science and Technology. This option addresses several issues: A) Existential reality; B) The psychological characteristics of elementary school children; C) The option for meaningful learning; D) The conception that the environment is the mediating term; E) The interdisciplinary nature of knowledge; F) The educational value of environmental studies.
5. The area of knowledge of the natural, social, and cultural.
The social and cultural. Although the area’s name mentions natural, social, and cultural development, ignoring the physical and separating the social from the cultural, it easily suggests that it could have been rightfully called the physical-natural and socio-cultural. This would have made explicit reference to the various systems that constitute it: physical systems, biological systems, and social systems, including culture as all human creations, and the environment as the life context of human groups.
Social environment. To define the concept of social sciences, we must consider the concept of society and the set of parameters that define it. We can define society as the set of facts, elements, factors, events, and social processes that constitute people’s environment, with which they interact, and where their lives take on meaning and significance. The act of constituting the social, human society, is: 1) As a system of social relationships; 2) As an articulated framework of human groups; 3) As a set of institutions.
The cultural environment. To define the concept of cultural environment, we must consider the concept of culture and the set of parameters that constitute it. We can define it as the set of facts, elements, factors, events, and processes that constitute the cultural environment of people, with which they interact, and where their lives take on meaning and significance. Given culture’s polysemic nature, it is not easy to find a universally accepted definition of cultural environment. The word culture comes from the Latin verb colere, meaning to cultivate, symbolically referring to arable farming and the cultivation of the person. The symbolic use of this word to denote the human capacity to create, the creative process and its results, allows us to define culture as something specifically human. In this way, we define culture as the set of facts and processes through which humans, individually and collectively, refine and develop their countless physical, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual capabilities. Again, we are faced with a series of parameters that constitute culture, among which we highlight: a) How to design and interpret reality globally; b) How to express themselves and communicate (including different languages); c) How to relate and organize socially, politically, and ideologically (including institutions and groups of all kinds); d) How to obtain, preserve, and consume food (including agriculture, livestock, fishing, and canning); e) How to dress (including all customs related to clothing); f) How to obtain shelter (including various urban styles and housing); g) How to have fun and spend free time; h) How to travel (including all systems and modes of travel by land, sea, and air).
The landscape. Initially related to artistic expression, the 19th century saw a growing interest in natural areas and their integral study (Bernáldez, González). It has two meanings: the image of a region, “the set of interrelated elements of a territory, easily defined and visible.” It is a theoretical elaboration on the content of the image. Defining characteristics of the concept of landscape are: – Perceived; – Integrates a set of components, both visible and invisible, natural and anthropic; – Is dynamic, in constant evolution and transformation.
Features of the landscape. The importance of basic visual elements depends on the type of landscape. The most significant elements are those that help identify its character, among these:
- Shape: Real or imaginary path perceived by the observer when there are sharp differences between visual elements or when objects are presented with a unidirectional sequence. They can occur as well-defined borders, diffuse, bands, or silhouettes.
- Color: Main property of a visual surface. Property of reflecting light with a particular intensity and wavelength.
- Line-Level: Relationship between the size of an object and the environment where it is located.
- Space: Spatial composition of the elements, defining different types of landscapes: – Scenic: There are no apparent limits to vision; – Closed: Defined by the presence of visual barriers that determine a marked space; – Focused: The existence of parallel lines or aligned objects; – Dominated: The presence of a singular component.
- Texture: Can be characterized by: – Grit: Relative size of surface irregularities; – Density: Variations in surface spacing; – Regularity: Ordered or random grouping; – Contrast: Diversity of color and brightness in an area.
Unit 1: Origin and evolution of social sciences in general. In an attempt to outline a timeline of the origin and evolution of social science, we can distinguish two major periods: Terminology (Bachelard):
- Pre-scientific period or background, from antiquity to the 18th century.
- Scientific period, from the origin of social sciences to the present.
In the pre-scientific period, spontaneous observations and philosophical, religious, and moral explanations predominated over experimental studies in the analysis and explanation of social phenomena. From the late 15th to the 18th century, several changes occurred in the perception of reality. For the scientific study of social reality, scholars turned to the natural sciences, whose methods could be used, with necessary adaptations, to study and interpret social reality. In this way, the foundations were laid for the emergence and consolidation of social sciences. Example: Juan Bautista Vico, in his book, proposed the law of eternal return, according to which the history of nations always proceeds in an orderly fashion in three phases: 1) Mythical or divine age; 2) Heroic age; 3) Human age. The third phase ends in a crisis, after which the cycle begins again, all guided by divine providence. A. Humboldt introduced the observational methods of the natural sciences into his geographical studies, which laid the foundations and outlined the general pattern of physical geography.
19th Century: The scientific stage begins (with contributions from A. Comte, K. Marx, E. Durkheim, B. Croce, etc.). It consolidated during the 20th century, with the acquisition of a majority in many sciences and the emergence of others, many of which are part of the Social Sciences.
4. Characteristics and elements common to all social sciences.
Scientific nature. Scientific knowledge, resulting from research carried out with the method and aim of science, goes beyond common knowledge, covering all aspects of the studied reality, including the deepest ones: static and dynamic aspects, their relationships with the rest of the world, etc. Science experiments, measures, observes, invents techniques, offers explanations, etc. Features: Universal or social nature, provisional, absence of dogmatism.
Epistemological obstacles inherent to cognitive activity can influence and alter the objectivity of knowledge as an activity and as a result. These include: A) The opinions and previous knowledge of scientists, who must maintain a critical distance before starting the research process; B) Traditions, prejudices, and value scales.
The specific character of its object of study: social reality. A reality that combines extreme heterogeneity and diversity of its elements, society itself as a collective (Piaget), and the uniqueness and transient and changing nature of social phenomena.
The characteristics acquired in the process of knowledge. Social scientific knowledge is the process and outcome of applying the scientific method to social realities. Scientific research follows a series of logically connected stages aimed at uncovering the truth in the social epistemological field. The goal is to acquire new ideas about social reality to explain and respond to the problems it presents. To achieve its goals, social research is a twofold process: 1) Verification (previous knowledge to empirical reality); 2) Theorizing (empirical reality to theory).
A more specific characteristic of social sciences compared to physical-natural sciences lies in the research process. In social sciences, the conceptual starting point is previous theories and the goal is to achieve new theories. All elements that take part in the research process have a conceptual nature, which contrasts with the empirical and objective character of physical-natural sciences.
Specifics in the relationship between subject and object. In the scientific universe of social sciences, man (subject) is constantly being changed by society (object), and, given the biological components, reality is the product of the sociocultural context in which he is born, grows, and lives. This creates stronger ties between the investigator and the object than in the universe of physical-natural sciences. Subjectivity in social sciences implies a constant effort to find a relationship between the object and the real purpose. Theoretical objectivity requires a constant exercise of decentration or detachment from one’s subjectivity. Some scientists deny the objectivity and neutrality of social knowledge. According to Sánchez Vázquez, science is not only a relationship between subject and reality, but also a set of statements about reality and real issues, which involve a social assessment.