| This research is intended to bring to light the nature of elementary school teachers' social representations in regard to the disciplines related to the social studies field, as well as the teaching of these disciplines within a provincial school board. This project came to exist following a number of interventions in elementary school classes as a practicum supervisor, and after discussions with teachers about the teaching of social studies. The foundations of this project are based on the following observation: at the elementary level, the teaching of knowledge and competencies in the social studies field is lacking and does not completely meet the expectations prescribed by the ministere de l'Education, du Loisir et du Sport.;Teachers at the elementary level teach very little of the knowledge and competencies in the social studies field in Quebec. As such, students are poorly equipped when they enter secondary school. Previous research targeted some of the factors, allowing an explanation of this observation. However, the researcher supposed that there were other reasons that could explain this phenomenon, and the researcher believed that the analysis of teachers' social representations could contribute important information to the analysis of this issue.;This analysis of social representations is based on the works and on the theories of Abrics' central core theory (Abric, 1994a). It was constructed around an exploratory research done within a regional school board, where 21 teachers were interviewed. Using a qualitative methodology, with an approach specifically intended for the educational sciences (Merriam, 1998), the results of the research enable us to identify three determining factors in the creation of teachers' social representations, with regard to history, geography and citizenship education. These factors also lead teachers to modify their teaching and didactic approaches.;Moreover, this research allowed for a better understanding of the creation of teachers' social representations as regards to the disciplines related to social studies and allowed several determining factors in the reluctance to teach this material to students.;Keywords: social representations, social science, history, geography, citizenship education, teaching, didactics, Commission scolaire de l'Or-et-des-Bois, Abitibi-Temiscamingue. |
