The perception of ageism among preservice elementary school teachers: an experience of educational innovation in social science teaching

Despite Spain's progressive demographic aging, the lack of teacher training in generational diversity perpetuates ageism and discriminatory attitudes in the education system. To address this challenge, this study analyzed preservice teachers' initial ideas about older people and their prevalence, following the creation of educational materials to address aging and ageism in Primary Education. A descriptive-interpretative approach was adopted, involving 71 students from the University Degree in Primary Education. A mixed methodology was used, structured in four phases: pre-activity evaluations, development of training proposals to address aging and ageism; final evaluations, and expert evaluation of the training proposals. The results of the pre-activity evaluations identified that 82% of participants held negative stereotypes about older people; after the design of the training proposals, this percentage was reduced to 9%. On the whole, the results derived from the development of the educational material showed effective awareness-raising and a significant improvement in attitudes toward aging. Finally, the expert evaluation detected the persistence of sexist language toward older people in the didactic proposal designed, concluding that, although teacher training at university level effectively combats age discrimination; it is necessary to address discriminatory linguistic biases in the Spanish language to ensure comprehensive awareness among future teachers.