South African Social Sciences teachers’ views on the integration of History and Geography in the General Education and Training phase

Abstract

With the cessation of apartheid in 1994, social transformation was one of the key objectives of the democratic South Africa. In light of this, the South African government believed that mass education would develop a democratised mindset amongst the country’s citizens. History and Geography were identified as two subjects that could promote the desired societal transformation and were thus combined into one learning area: Social Sciences. The concept underpinning this learning area was integration. The notion of integration takes different forms in the literature, and these are explored here. This study explored teachers’ views on integration in relation to Social Sciences. Responses from semi-structured interviews indicated that integration in Social Sciences varied as conceptual, physical and social processes. The study results revealed that integration in Social Sciences is devoid of metanarratives, as there was a degree of discongruity in teachers’ views of integration in Social Sciences. Despite this, inherent commonalities were evident in their responses in terms of disciplinary proficiency, issues of diversity and engagement in a globalised world. These were reflected in the participants’ responses as being important to explore when integrating History and Geography in Social Sciences.