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.

Heritage plays a significant role in understanding historical societies, particularly intangible heritage, as a legacy kept “alive” solely by the action of communities. Therefore, it holds great education potential in the context of critical citizenship education. This action research aims to investigate the perceptions of primary education teachers about intangible heritage and its didactic potential in critical citizenship education. In addition, this paper analyses the changes and continuities that occur in student teachers’ perceptions after carrying out a didactic project focused on relevant social problems linked to the Way of Saint James. This case study is proposed for primary teachers in initial training at the University of A Coruña (Galicia, Spain). The study was conducted during three academic years (2020–2023), with the participation of 160 student teachers. The questionnaire, the interview, and the focus group were used as research instruments. Students learned to give more importance to understanding intangible heritage and reconsidered it as an educational resource for critical citizenship education. However, many aspects of a traditional heritage education remain, where what matters is to respect and care for what is inherited without questioning its current value or its suitability for transmission to future generations.

Socio-environmental problems are some of the major concerns of today’s society, and education is an essential area to raise awareness and mould future citizens who will be committed to sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how future primary and secondary education teachers in the area of social sciences perceive the socio-environmental problems that affect today’s society, for their subsequent inclusion in the curriculum. To this end, a study was carried out by means of a questionnaire, which showed that trainee primary and secondary teachers have a high consideration of these environmental problems, with hardly any differences noted according to sex or type of degree studied. This perception is positive in terms of the subsequent inclusion of socio-environmental problems in the development of the curriculum by the participating trainee teachers, who largely prefer an autonomous model for curricular implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to assess students’ social representations of forced migration as a relevant social problem in the last year of primary education and the opportunity for its curricular inclusion. The study was carried out by means of a questionnaire, filled in by 6th-year primary education groups (11–12 years old) (n = 70), in a state-supported private school in the city of A Coruña (Galicia, Spain). The questionnaire was supported by three pictures of forced migrations from the media. In this case, the children had to interpret the pictures through a series of questions that sought to investigate their representations, the causes they identify in this social problem, their opinions, and possible solutions. Finally, the opportunity for the inclusion of social problems as curriculum content was addressed. The study shows that the students are in favor of migrants, that they use concepts from the social sciences in their arguments—albeit simple ones, and that they are in favor of the curricular inclusion of social problems, in which they develop representations through different sources of information.

En esta aportación se presenta una propuesta metodológica para el trabajo con fuentes históricas en el Bachillerato. Más concretamente dentro del área de Historia, se propone el trabajo con algunas de las fuentes históricas propias de la investigación en Historia Moderna, desde el ámbito demográfico. La finalidad de la aportación no es otra que familiarizar al discente con el material utilizado por el historiador para la construcción del pasado, a fin de promover la visión del carácter científico de la disciplina y del proceso de reconstrucción histórica.

Una novedad relevante en la LOMLOE es la introducción de la memoria democrática como una nueva dimensión de la Educación para la Ciudadanía, con el objeto de promover la participación ciudadana en la vida pública. Sin embargo, el trabajo de Navarro-Medina, De Alba-Fernández y Pérez-Rodríguez (2023), señalando la ausencia en el actual currículo de conceptos clave como dictadura, franquismo, régimen totalitario, persecución, exilio o sublevación, nos sitúa en la tesitura de valorar las interpretaciones que han realizado de la actual ley de educación el conjunto de comunidades autónomas del estado español. El problema de investigación del que partimos intenta valorar en qué medida ha influido el signo político de cada una, en la interpretación realizada de las indicaciones ministeriales. A tal fin, acometemos un estudio descriptivo-interpretativo de los decretos que establecen la ordenación del currículo en la etapa de Educación Primaria en las comunidades autónomas.