In recent decades, a growing awareness of the importance of preserving cultural heritage as a means of promoting sustainable development has been accompanied by a similar re-evaluation of the role of heritage education as a key driver of citizen engagement. The development and implementation of heritage education at all levels, particularly in the context of teacher training, is of vital importance. The aim of this study is to analyse student teachers’ understanding of heritage and its potential as an educational tool, in order to identify measures to enhance teacher training and practice with respect to heritage and heritage education. The research design consists of a comparative study of a non-random sample of 149 trainee teachers undertaking Bachelor’s degrees in Early Childhood Education and Primary Education at the University of Córdoba (Spain). The results reveal a mainly cultural conception of heritage among both groups, based on local material elements, and little sense of the link between heritage and present-day life. The students studying early childhood education were found to display a more specific knowledge of heritage in their answers, while the primary education students showed a greater awareness of identity and values as features of cultural heritage.

This study examines the conception of heritage—holistic or traditional—among future early-childhood and primary teachers. In order to do this, our objective was to analyze trainee teachers’ perceptions surrounding the conception of heritage. To carry out the analysis, we designed and validated a questionnaire with closed-ended questions (Likert scale 1–5) and one open-ended question about the elements that respondents considered to be part of what we define as heritage. The participants (n = 602) study at the universities of Alicante, Murcia, and Córdoba, and the investigation took place during 2018/19 and 2019/20 academic years. The results show a traditional conception that is still attached to immovable monumental heritage, with lower scores for intangible and natural heritage. However, there were some high scores for traditions and popular festivals, which are a frequent educational resource in early-childhood and primary classrooms. In conclusion, this non-holistic conception of heritage could be changed if an active and varied use of heritage resources were introduced from the early stages of education.

Environmental problems are a challenge for today's society; hence, it is an area of interest in the educational field at different levels of education. We propose an investigation from the didactics of the social sciences, in the teacher training, to analyze the social representation of this problem and the way in which the environmental challenges in the classrooms of primary education by the future teachers would be included. In this work, we present the results obtained with respect to this last question. The research, which corresponds to a case study, is established from a socio-critical approach, seeking the obtaining of results that can help in the process of teacher training. The data has been obtained through a questionnaire, developed with the purpose of obtaining both qualitative and quantitative information. The research was carried out during the 2017-2018 academic year, at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Córdoba. The results show the conception of environmental problems as a relevant concern for students; however, it highlights a fairly ambiguous conceptual knowledge marked by the influence of the media, as well as a limited capacity to propose didactic sequences that encourage a necessary social change and a holistic and comprehensive environmental education.

Desde un enfoque interpretativo, presentamos una investigación de las representaciones sociales del profesorado en formación de educación primaria sobre los problemas medioambientales en la Universidad de Córdoba (España). Se obtuvo la información a través de un cuestionario, que permitió la obtención de datos de tipo cuantitativo y cualitativo. A través de la representación social de las y los participantes en este estudio, se puede señalar la elevada inquietud que estos presentan respecto al estado del medioambiente. Sin embargo, son preocupantes los sesgos e imprecisiones conceptuales y la reducción del medioambiente a los hechos y sucesos naturales, resultados coincidentes con los obtenidos por otros autores en sus investigaciones. Ante esta situación, cabe reflexionar sobre las finalidades, enfoques y contenidos que se están desarrollando en la formación de los grados de magisterio de educación primaria.

Durante siglos, la escasez de agua ha propiciado el desarrollo de una importante arquitectura hidráulica en los espacios con posibilidad de