Each place has its own story. In Slovenia, inns have traditionally served as important spaces for socializing, exchanging information, cultural encounters, and shaping local identity. In this master’s thesis, I present inns as centres of social life, using Gostilna pri Pildarju in Ribnica as a case study. Its history is closely intertwined with the development of the local community. I also have a personal connection to the inn, as I belong to the sixth generation of the Pelc family, which continues its innkeeping tradition in Ribnica.
By conducting a lesson with fifth-grade pupils and analysing their work, I explored their knowledge of the history of inns in Ribnica and their importance to the local community in the past. As part of an activity day organised as a fieldwork-based lesson, the pupils explored the life of an innkeeping family through a specific local example and examined the significance of the inn for members of the local community in the past.
By planning and conducting the lesson with fifth-grade pupils at Dr France Prešeren Primary School in Ribnica, I demonstrated how teachers can incorporate the cultural heritage of the local environment into social studies teaching and present the role of inns and the social life associated with them in the past and present. Through classroom observation and the analysis of pupils’ worksheets, research diaries, and artworks, I explored how fifth-grade pupils actively learn about the cultural heritage and history of inns in Ribnica through fieldwork-based learning.
A qualitative research approach was used. Classroom work combined with fieldwork was carried out with fifth-grade pupils at Dr France Prešeren Primary School in Ribnica and comprised five school periods. Twenty-one pupils participated in the activity, completing worksheets and carrying out tasks at different stations in the centre of their hometown of Ribnica. I observed the pupils throughout the entire activity day. The observation criteria included pupil activity, interest, understanding of the learning content, social interaction, and the organisation of the fieldwork-based lesson.
Following the activity day, I conducted a semi-structured interview with the class teacher and administered a semi-structured questionnaire to the pupils to examine the usefulness and effects of the activity. The implementation of the fieldwork-based lesson was subsequently described and analysed.
The activities and teaching materials developed as part of this study may be useful to teachers who wish to introduce pupils to the significance of inns in their local environment and to the social development of the local community in a different and more experiential way. Through this master’s thesis, I have contributed ideas for teaching social studies topics in primary education.
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