ABSTRACT
Modern Studies was viewed as particularly threatening by geography and history teachers in its early days because the examination courses had a mainly geographical and historical emphasis. Most study of Europe in Scottish schools takes place within the traditional subjects history and geography together with Modern Studies which has established itself in the secondary school curriculum over the last two decades. Teachers of Modern Studies tend to come from the following specialist subject areas in which they have taken a degree: geography, history, economics, politics, and social studies. They have then acquired a teaching qualification in Modern Studies at a college of education. To investigate the scope Modern Studies offers for teaching about contemporary Europe, case studies were conducted in large urban comprehensive schools in Scotland. The Principal Teachers in the Modern Studies departments of these schools discussed, in a series of interviews, how the subject had evolved in their respective schools.
