Dear Colleagues,

The main purpose of social science education is the formation of social thought for the understanding of reality from its critical and creative dimensions and for the intervention and democratic participation of a responsible and committed citizenship; that is, the formation of citizens capable of living democratically with each other and of participating in the social, labor, cultural and political life of their world, trying to improve it (Ortega-Sánchez and Pagès, 2020).

The purpose of forming social thought implies overcoming the complexity of social reality through the decoding of the various languages present in society. The critical evaluation of facts, situations, and individual and/or social attitudes—critical thinking—and the proposal of alternatives and solutions to social problems—creative thinking—imply the justification, contrast, and argumentation of opinions and positions, so to intervene socially and to improve individually and collectively (Pagès and Santisteban, 2011).

Likewise, the development of social thinking skills takes place in necessarily technological environments, which should be observed, analyzed, and evaluated from an eminently critical perspective. In this sense, the acquisition of skills for the identification/discrimination, evaluation, and appropriate use of information is unavoidable. Achieving this type of thinking implies the educational promotion of digital competencies and equitable technological access. Gender inequality of access is known as the “second digital gap” and is characterized by the low participation of women in the design and programming of software and hardware, as well as by an unequal perception, according to gender, of technological resources (Ortega-Sánchez and Gómez-Trigueros, 2020).

In this context, the present Special Issue seeks to answer questions about methodological approaches aimed at addressing social thinking as a research problem in education. Is aims to address the following research questions:

1. What type of methodology (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) would be useful to address the formation of social thought as a research problem in social science education? With what objectives, hypotheses, assumptions, and study variables? In what educational scenarios?
2. How should educational research on the formation of social thought be designed? With what techniques? With what instruments?
3. How is the information and knowledge society related to the formation of social thinking? What technological resources accompany teachers in the critical education of citizenship? What use of technologies is implemented in the classroom for the achievement of critical thinking? What teaching and learning models, and what uses of educational technology are reproduced in the classroom to eradicate the gender digital gap?

Articles on educational research and innovation based on the application of rigorous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodological designs, whose results represent a significant contribution to the research topic posed, are welcome.

Dr. Delfín Ortega-Sánchez
Dr. Carlos Pérez-González
Dr. Isabel María Gómez-Trigueros
Guest Editors

References

Ortega-Sanchez, D.; Gomez-Trigueros, I.M. MOOCs and NOOCs in the Training of Future Geography and History Teachers: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study Based on the TPACK Model. IEEE Access 2020, 8, 4035-4042. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2963314

Ortega-Sánchez, D.; Pagès, J. The End-Purpose of Teaching History and the Curricular Inclusion of Social Problems from the Perspective of Primary Education Trainee Teachers. Soc. Sci. 2020, 9, 9. doi: 10.3390/socsci9020009

Pagès, J.; Santisteban, A. Enseñar y aprender ciencias sociales (Teach and learn social sciences). In Pagès, J.; Santisteban, A., Eds., La Didáctica del Conocimiento del Medio Social y Cultural en Educación Primaria. Ciencias Sociales para comprender, pensar y actuar (The Didactics of Knowledge of the Social and Cultural Environment in Primary Education. Social Sciences to understand, think and act). Síntesis: Madrid, Spain. 2011, pp. 23–40. (In English)

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• methodological bases in social science education
• formation of social thought
• education for democratic citizenship