The emergence and expansion of social networks in the digital age has led to social transformations that have a great impact within the field of education. Teacher-training programs face the challenge of preparing future teachers to critically interpret digital media. They must succeed in this if we are to develop citizens who are well informed and reflective, which then raises the question: Are future teachers critical thinkers? This study took third- and fourth-year students of primary education (n = 322) at five Spanish universities and explored their capacity for constructing critical discourses. It examined how well they can analyze and discuss information from digital media on social problems like poverty, economic crises, social justice, and the media. Its findings reveal that future teachers have difficulty in putting together critical discourses based on information from the Internet on social problems. Those who have doubts, compare, analyze, and reason are the minority.

The transformations caused by the proliferation of social media in the Digital Age are having a huge impact on the field of education. Teacher training programmes are faced with the challenge of preparing future teachers to interpret digital media critically. Creating an informed, reflective citizenry depends on this training. This leads to the question: Are future teachers critical thinkers? This study inquires into the capacities of students in their third and fourth years of the Bachelor’s degree in Primary Education at five Spanish universities (n = 322) to construct critical discourses. This study examines their capacities to analyse and discuss information from social media on controversial issues around gender violence, machismo, LGBTIQ persons, homophobia, intolerance and undemocratic attitudes. The results reveal the future teachers’ difficulties developing critical discourses based on online news items on controversial issues. Only a minority doubt, check, analyse and argue critically.

The recent rise of authoritarian populism, fueled by the spread of digital hate speech and the preeminence of emotions in the political arena, has not aroused much interest among educational researchers. In response to this gap in the literature, the authors of the present article aim to provide an overview of the educational implications of the recent wave of authoritarian populism by interviewing a group of experts on democratic citizenship education from various countries and backgrounds. The dialogue resulting from their responses helps to move forward the educational debate on how schools can deal with the emotions and hate speech that motivate support for authoritarian populisms.

En este artículo se revisa la evolución de la ciencia histórica y de la historia escolar a lo largo de los últimos 25 años. Esta revisión se centra en los avances en la investigación y la enseñanza de la historia de las personas; es decir, aquella que atiende a la totalidad de agentes sociales e históricos, que se articula a partir de la proyección global de la humanidad y que atiende a los problemas de las experiencias humanas. En primer lugar, se concreta el concepto de historia escolar y se explica la relación que se establece entre la historia escolar y la historiografía. En segundo lugar, se analiza la evolución de ambas a lo largo de estos 25 años. Finalmente, se plantean retos de futuro. Existe un desequilibrio entre la evolución del conocimiento histórico y el impacto que ha tenido en el currículo escolar. La historia escolar sigue centrada, de manera mayoritaria, en los procesos políticos nacionales, y reproduciendo saberes androcéntricos y eurocéntricos en los que se excluyen la gran mayoría de protagonistas. In this article the evolution of historical science and school history over the past 25 years is reviewed. This review focuses on advances in people's history; that is, a history in which all social and historical agents are recognised, and which is articulated from the global consideration of humanity and human experiences. In the first place, the meaning of school history is specified, along with the relationship between school history and historiography. Secondly, the evolution of both over these 25 years is analysed. Finally, we pose future challenges. There is an imbalance between the evolution of historical knowledge and the impact it has had on the school curriculum and educational practices. School history continues to reproduce androcentric and Eurocentric knowledge based on political processes in which the great majority of protagonists are excluded.

Critical citizenship education must consider the global and digital context in which we live. Digital media and global processes have a decisive influence on people’s daily lives. However, digital literacy programs rarely go beyond teaching technological skills. Similarly, critical thinking approaches to education focus on developing cognitive skills, omitting the weight of values and emotions in decision making. This research analyses Spanish secondary school students’ narratives and reflections about two publications on Twitter that present biased information to encourage undemocratic attitudes. The results show that most students are far from being critical of the information they read on the internet, and they easily fall into the trap of defending undemocratic discourses.

Studies on critical literacy are starting to get its way in social studies education research in Spain. Authors like Tosar & Santisteban (2016), and Ortega & Pagès (2017) agree on the importance of the approach of critical literacy to critical thinking education. It is also relevant to social studies didactics area, because it continues the research on social studies education based on Questions Socialement Vives (Legardez y Simmoneaux, 2006) and controversial issues, that have already been widely studied. In this context, the project “Enseñar y aprender a interpretar problemas y conflictos contemporáneos ¿Qué aportan las ciencias sociales a la formación de una ciudadanía global crítica?”, faces the impact of the emotion factor, that could condition critical thinking in certain situations, and it is especially relevant in the digital age with the rise of fake news. This brings us the question: How do emotions affect trainee teachers when it comes to use critical thinking when they read information on the Internet? The sample used are trainee teachers (n=326) from several Spanish universities: University Jaume I from Castellón, Florida Universitaria from Valencia, University of Jaén, University of Málaga and Autonomous University of Barcelona. The results reveal that the online information that puts in tension the values of the students unleash emotional responses that suspend rational thought and critical thinking.