If you ask students what their dreams are and why they should study, most of them answer that they want to go to a good college. However, a good college degree does not represent successful life, and no one can guarantee the life after college; unpred...
If you ask students what their dreams are and why they should study, most of them answer that they want to go to a good college. However, a good college degree does not represent successful life, and no one can guarantee the life after college; unpredictable event happens such as career, marriage, family, retirement and etc. Making plans are essential to achieve effective time management, so career education is important for students those who do not have life plans and dreams yet.
Due to “free semester system” implementation in middle schools, 2016, recognition of the importance of career education is increasing. Social Studies subject have valued career education by having “rational choice and life” unit in 1st grade text book since 2007. The composition of the unit covers the content from career planning to life cycle to find a role as a right social member. In the curriculum, this is defined as high school social studies career education, and this study analyzes the teaching expertise of social studies teachers who teach this unit.
This study used qualitative research method by in-depth interviews of 13 social studies teachers. With the interview results, certain categories are constructed by repeatedly comparing the collected codes through open coding, organize the categories by paradigm to set up the core category, and integrate the categories to hold a common outline of the story.
The analysis has the following significance. First, social studies teachers were relatively faithful to the curriculum of social studies and career education. However, most teachers are satisfied with the role of the messenger of the curriculum. Therefore, curriculum participation of teachers is needed to further develop of career education in social studies.
Second, the contents of the social studies course education and the pedagogical knowledge PCK are not established, so the teachers have difficulties to give lectures in class. Most of the social studies teachers were not trained for career, so teachers often taught themselves on the basis of the contents in the textbooks. It is necessary to continuously develop research on PCK to enhance teachers’ expertise.
Third, social studies teachers are faithful to the role of curriculum messenger. Curriculum delivery is one of the essential roles of teachers. However, solely relying on curriculum delivery can cause isolation of empirical values which is incompatible with the purpose of career education. Social studies career education should be an activity oriented lesson by avoiding paper based evaluation and reflecting the teacher 's diverse experiences and knowledge.
Forth, teachers do not constantly revise or supplement the class through reflection of the act in social studies career education. The teacher should develop the class gradually with class expertise as a reflective practitioner. However, social studies teachers depend on career counseling teachers when it comes to career education.
Because of the lack of expertise in the classroom, teacher’s interest and continuous reflection practice is important to develop career education in social studies. In addition, this study suggests that the following educational environment should be supported by the educational authorities in order to develop teacher’s expertise. First, career education training system should be supported. Since It is difficult to organize and conduct the class on its own, a system for training and fellow teacher group is needed to increase expertise.
Second, course extension and classes more class time is needed. Since career education in social studies is just a unit, there is a lack of absolute class time. Therefore, it is necessary to supplement activities through course extension. In order to properly educate career education, it is necessary to include career education lesson in the corresponding units rather than organizing it into one unit.
Lastly, career education training should be a part of social studies teacher train program. If career education is included in the training process, the quality of teacher’s expertise can be increased. A change in the training process is necessary because it is very risky for a teacher with lack of expertise to do career education.
Many social studies teachers acknowledge the importance of career education and recognize the needs of improvement. However, most of the teachers are busy with classroom education and administrative work, so there is no place to try to develop classes for career education in social studies. Therefore, this study is to inform the teachers and the education authorities that the development teacher’s expertise of career education in social studies subject is urgently needed.