Uncovering Social Awareness in World History through Reflexivity: Basis for a Social Awareness Plan for JHS Students

Abstract

The study stressed the prime importance of social awareness in the study of World History by emphasizing its themes. A mixed –method research design was used as the backbone of the methodology. Onwuegbuzie andLeech (2004) said that mixed method research allows the researcher for methodological pluralism usually resulting to a “superior research” by “incorporating the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative research.” The study used the Explanatory Sequential Design and it is one type of mixed –method research design. This design allowed the study to identify elements among themes of world history that is contributing to social awareness. It was found out that the themes in world history that undergone social processes (social sensitivity, social insight and social awareness) helped the students in developing awareness, as evidently shown in their inventory scores’ weighted average. Moreover, the themes were derived from their reflexive journal after the tedious data triangulation revealed consistency and association. Furthermore, the pre-test and post–test scores of the students on social awareness exhibited a significant difference and this allows the researcher to conclude that the intervention of reflexivity provided a significant difference on the student’s scores. These results aided the researcher in the development of a Social Awareness Program or “The YOUTH Program”. It aims to equip students with valuable experiences as they apply the concepts gained on social awareness on a community level.