A Proposed Vision for Sustainable Professional Development Strategies for Social Studies Teachers in Light of the Study of History Sources: A Mixed Study

Abstract

The study aimed to build a proposed vision for sustainable professional development strategies for social studies teachers in light of the study of history sources. The mixed approach was followed according to the exploratory sequential design consisting of two stages: the qualitative stage (grounded theory method), which included conducting open interviews with (12) experts in three Saudi universities, then the quantitative stage (the descriptive survey method), in which a questionnaire was distributed to a sample consisting of (320) social studies teachers in schools in the Medina region. The qualitative results showed that the experts’ perceptions of the best sustainable professional development strategies for social studies teachers in light of the study of history sources were represented in three main areas: (school-centered strategies, digitalization-centered strategies, and research activity-centered strategies), from which (13) sub-strategies related to the study of history sources emerged, namely: (professional learning communities, workshops, a school training unit, Panel discussion, expert training sessions, peer observation, historical debates, digital platforms, professional networks with stakeholders, artificial intelligence platforms, action research, research projects, and attendance at scientific seminars at relevant institutions). The quantitative results also showed that the reality of strategies needed for social studies teachers from their perspectives came at a degree of (strongly agree), with an average of (4.21), and the fields were ranked in descending order as follows (digitalization-centered strategies, school-centered strategies, research activity-centered strategies).The study presented a proposed vision for these strategies including: proposed vision benchmarks, its objectives, content, requirements, implementation obstacles, and ways to overcome them.