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This paper analyzes the conceptions of Ibero-American secondary school teachers about the role of history teaching in creating collective identities, and how heritage can impact history classes. We applied a peer validated questionnaire to 283 history teachers from seven countries, analyzing their answers using a deductive-inductive method supported by IBM SSPS software (version 23). The analysis reveal that heritage continues to have little presence in lessons, mostly used as an example of historical narratives that highlight the national identity over others.

This paper presents the results of a comparative study that seeks to identify conceptions of the importance of four types of formal content in history teaching (periods of history, cross-cutting themes in history, history of places, and national historical processes) among a group of Colombian (M=764) and Spanish (N=648) students in the last year of compulsory education in the cities of Bogotá and Murcia, respectively. A descriptive approach was followed based on a closed-ended questionnaire relating to historical consciousness, with item responses measured on a Likert scale. The results support the idea that the interest shown by students in the formal content proposed is an indicator that calls for a critical review of the structure and organization of history curricula in the two contexts studied.

This project-based research falls within ​​visual sociology in history education, which focuses on integrating local cultural heritage through digital photovoice (DP). It aims to build the students’ historical and cultural identity to preserve Indonesian cultural heritage. However, research on DP in history education is still scarce and understudied. Grounded in the Project-Based Learning (PBL) theory, this study explored how DP facilitated the students’ history learning of the local heritage. Forty-one history education students from an Indonesian public university agreed and consented to participate in the study. Data were analyzed from the PBL portfolio, student-created DP, and focus group interviews (FGI) with the students. As a result, the study highlights three key findings that PBL-DP integrated strategy: 1) facilitated and increased the students’ learning engagement, participation, autonomy, collaboration, and activeness in learning activities, 2) encouraged the production of student-created digital photovoice, and 3) promoted their historical and cultural identity. The implication of this study suggests integrating DP into history pedagogy and history teachers’ professional development.

This article provides an in-depth analysis and discussion of the global-historical theory of the so-called Rise of the West during the Early Modern Age and the commonly named Age of Discovery. This theory is covered from the point of view of history education in order to question and provide a criticial examination of the framework. On the one hand, the controversial state of research of the topic is outlined, focusing on the main theoretical debates and some of the most noteworthy ideas under discussion. On the other hand, a discussion is also provided regarding some of the special requirements and essential conditions for an implementation of the idea of the Rise of the West in the curriculum. These notions are linked to both the traditional and current narratives that can be found in the German and Spanish national contexts. From this point of view, the politics of history of both nations are outlined, and, in addition, in order to provide some exemplifications, a selection of history textbooks from previous decades have been also examined in order to analyze the way some of the narratives and these themes are presented. A series of categories, including historical myths, and the Rise of the West as a special category, as well as its institutional dimensions are also discussed in order to showcase the potential of the theory and some of the shortcomings that were detected from the perspective of history education.

In this essay, I discuss what history education can do against the Covid-19 pandemic. I focus my attention in the educational dimension of history education, instead of the disciplinary knowledge. Also, I analyze the school conditions produced by the health control, overall the schools lock down and the isolate of students and teachers. For that, I describethe history education as flied of research, the situation of the school in Mexico, and I try to define some features of history education. Finally, I point out suggestion for acting in three levels. Fist, the instructional, second the curricular and third the structural. All three level use de curricular justice as frameworkand educational aims. All these suggestions are part of what I call pedagogy for the emergency.

This study presents students’ conceptions about the consequences and significance of the French Revolution. The data were collected from Swiss ninth graders (15 to 16 years old; N=22) by means of group discussions and problem-centred interviews. The data were evaluated using a reconstructive qualitative method. The students’ historical thinking is dominated by a belief in progress and paramount presentism. The adolescents feel entangled in the history of the French Revolution, it has a symbolic and present-future significance (Cercadillo). Thus, they construct historical significance in an exemplary way (Rüsen). These explanatory patterns are anchored in the everyday conceptions of the students and not in an academic understanding of history. Therefore, teachers should cognitively model learners’ thinking by showing how historians narrate and construct the historical significance of the French Revolution, by making this second-order concept explicit and by giving them the opportunity to explore different types of narrative (Rüsen).

Some education practices can impede learning democratic citizenship agency by reinforcing injustices or omitting dis­senting perspectives. Other practices may help address con­flict issues through problem-posing inquiry activities. This literature review explores the ways social sciences’ curriculum practices can select knowledges that enhance peace or exa­cerbates violence. Considering peace and conflict theories, I highlight the limitations and possibilities for peacebuilding of Colombia’s citizenship and social sciences’ curricula. Also, I discuss the ways certain social studies curriculum decisions (selections and omissions) may reproduce violence, injustice and passivity. Finally, I discuss how certain practices may de­velop critical citizenship capacities to handle conflicts.

This paper presents an experience of teaching innovation in didactics of history. The experience was carried out in initial teacher training and was based on the combined use of primary sources and digital resources, with the aim of developing an alternative teaching-learning model of history that fosters historical thinking competences. The work done by the participants evidences that the experience allows teachers in initial training to put into practice conceptual and procedural contents that are decisive for the acquisition of both contents and teaching-learning methodologies of the Social Sciences and History. -- El presente trabajo muestra una experiencia de innovación docente en didáctica de la historia. La experiencia se llevó a cabo en el Grado de Educación Primaria y se basó en el uso combinado de fuentes primarias y recursos digitales, con el objetivo de desarrollar un modelo alternativo de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la historia que fomentara competencias de pensamiento histórico. El estudio de caso realizado desvela que dicha experiencia de innovación docente permite que los maestros en formación inicial pongan en práctica contenidos conceptuales y procedimentales determinantes para la adquisición de contenidos y de metodologías de enseñanza-aprendizaje de las Ciencias Sociales y la Historia.

This paper addresses narrative thinking and literacy levels in future primary school teachers in Spain. It uses the study of a historical synthesis of one of the main narratives in Spanish history: the Christian expansion through Muslim territories in the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages. Accounts by 283 students of the degree in elementary school teaching at the universities of Valencia and Murcia were studied. The aim was to ascertain the students' discursive abilities with respect to their historical thinking skills. The results reveal poor narrative skills in future teachers and a very low level of historical literacy.

This paper makes a reflection on the assessment of historical thinking in compulsory education. First, the article reflects on the type of knowledge that is being evaluated (memory or understanding). According to current thinking, assessment should meet the teaching aims set out by the teacher, it should be another means of monitoring and improving students' learning, of correcting mistakes made during the process and of taking relevant decisions. Secondly, there will be an analysis of the cognitive model of learning history proposed by international studies. The application of educational competences to assessment processes needs to be adjusted to the epistemological, pedagogical and cognitive fundaments of each subject. Finally, the article will make some proposals for evaluation, firstly by using methods of inquiry, problem-based learning and related teaching strategies, in addition to the use of tools to assess more complex skills of historical thinking with students´argumentation. Historical thinking requires a variety of assessment tools that are able to capture the different capacities of the students in their interpretation of the past and their historical skills.

This paper examines the competencies in historical thinking of high school students and pre-service teachers in Spain, as well as their narratives about Spanish History. Qualitative methods are used in order to identify: a) their historical thinking, including substantive knowledge and use of meta-concepts; b) the narratives, the cognitive gradation (SOLO taxonomy), and the narrative subject employed. The findings show that a majority of secondary school students do not use meta-concepts. The degree of complexity of historical thinking among pre-service teachers is related to their use of substantive content. The results point to the need to improve history education, including substantive knowledge and the development of specific historical competencies.

The promotion of critical thinking is an important but elusive goal in history, social studies, and civic education. Teachers often struggle to translate general definitions of critical thinking into specific pedagogical tools to plan learning activities and to observe and interpret student work in these subjects. They also struggle to distinguish between “teaching critical content” and “teaching students to think critically.” In this paper, I draw upon scholarship on critical thinking, history education, moral education, and critical pedagogy to propose four tools for critical inquiry in the social domain: Problem-posing, Reflective skepticism, Multi-perspectivity and Systemic thinking. I describe how each tool works, discussing how they integrate the epistemic purpose of fostering good understanding with the social purpose of cultivating thoughtful, responsible, pluralist and non-violent citizens.

The field of research in history education developed under a qualitative approach in the line of Peter Lee and Denis Shemilt pioneer work, in UK, has been especially fruitful to a consistent history teaching. One of its most relevant foci nowadays has been the inquiry about indicators of the youngsters’ historical consciousness, according to the Jörn Rüsen philosophical approach. With this theoretical framework, a study wit Portuguese 9th graders was carried out to explore implicit relationships between understanding the past and the formation of national and global identities, in connection with conceptions of historical change and temporal orientation. To achieve that goal, students wrote their accounts about the contem-porary national and world history. The results here presented are discussed as a diagnosis of the youngsters’ historical consciousness construction, providing a reflexive basis for consistent practices in the History teaching domain.

Para explorar de forma aprofundada as conceções de mudança para lá de análises do presente, importa relembrar algumas discussões de caráter epistemológico em que perpassam visões diversas acerca da Mudança em História, algumas já ultrapassadas mas que permanecem a nível do senso comum. Perante uma intensa produção historiográfica permanentemente em renovação e aberta a diversos pontos de vista e enfoques. Pode-se inferir que a mudança em História, num quadro de reconhecimento de multiperspectiva, é concebida de forma complexa e problemática, sem um sentido fixo ou uma direção determinada. Em educação histórica, as conceções de alunos sobre o conceito de Mudança têm sido já objeto de alguns estudos que podem fornecer pistas frutuosas para a ação educativa. Neste sentido, apresentam-se e discutem-se os fundamentos teóricos, métodos e resultados de alguns desses estudos sobre ideias de alunos de vários países acerca da mudança em História. Algumas implicações destes estudos pretendem constituir-se como pistas que ajudem a desenvolver um tipo de orientação temporal eventualmente mais adequada aos tempos de incerteza que hoje se vivem.To deeply explore the conceptions about historical change beyond presentist analyses some relevant epistemological debates among diversified views on the issue must be reminded. Although some of them are now outofdate, they still have remained at a commonsense level. In the light of an intensive, permanently renovated historiographical production, open to different perspectives and foci, we might infer that, under a framework of multi perspectivism acknowledgement, change in History is conceived in a complex and problematic manner, with no fixed meaning or predetermined direction. In History Education, the students' conceptions on change have been explored in some studies with fruitful clues for educational action. Accordingly, in this paper the theoretical background, methods and results from those studies in several countries on students' ideas about change in history will be given. Some of their implications are intended to contribute as clues to help developing a type of temporal orientation eventually more appropriate to these times of uncertainty we currently live in.

This paper discusses the nature of argument and its role and importance in historical learning. The paper describes pedagogic strategies developed to help school pupils understand what argument is, model how arguments work and think about how arguments can be evaluated. These strategies are explained as generic critical thinking strategies and the article then demonstrates how these strategies can be applied in history education contexts. The strategies that the article describes aim to make the logical relationships that are embodied in arguments clear to students through the use of analogies and active learning strategies that seek, first, to enable students to represent logical relationships in concrete ways and, second, to help students manipulate and explore these relationships.Este trabalho discute a natureza do argumento e seu papel e importância na aprendizagem histórica. Este trabalho descreve as estratégias pedagógicas desenvolvidas para auxiliar os alunos a compreender o que é o argumento, a estabelecer modelos de como os argumentos funcionam e a pensar como os argumentos podem ser avaliados. Estas estratégias são explicadas enquanto estratégias genéricas de pensamento crítico; e o artigo demonstra, então, como elas podem ser aplicadas em contextos de educação histórica. As estratégias descritas objetivam tornar claras, para os alunos, as relações lógicas incorporadas pelos argumentos, através do uso de analogias e estratégias de aprendizagem ativa. Estas procuram, primeiramente, possibilitar que os alunos representem relações lógicas de maneira concreta e, em segundo lugar, auxiliar os alunos a manipular e explorar estas relações.

O texto aborda aspectos da circulação do livro didático, que antecedem sua entrada na escola, mas deixam marcas nos saberes que circulam na sala de aula. Para isto, apresenta um panorama das políticas públicas para o livro didático no Brasil, em 2004, e traz um estudo sobre como esses processos interferem, tacitamente, no currículo em ação, por meio dos livros didáticos de História recebidos pelas escolas públicas da cidade de São Paulo, em 2002.The article considers some aspects of the textbook circulation that precedes its ingress into the school, but interferes directly with the knowledge present at the classroom. It reveals the Brazilian public policies for the textbooks, in 2004, and analyses the interference of this policies on the curriculum through the History textbooks, adopted in the public school system of the city of Sao Paulo, during 2002.

The article presents the main findings of studies carried out at the national and the international level, related to the teaching of History and Social Studies in compulsory education in Finland, and also shortly describes some considerations about these subjects’ curricula. The objectives for these two subjects, as well as the assessment criteria, in the present Curriculum for Elementary School have been designed for the development of cognitive competences since 2004. Furthermore, the purpose of these subjects is to contribute in the development of the students’ active and responsible role in society. Adolescents’ knowledge, their participation and attitudes related to citizenship, politics and society were investigated in two large scale international evaluations. Of interest is also the first national evaluation study (2012). Recent research provides contradictory messages about adolescents’ development. The cognitive development is at a good level, although the national assessment indicates problems in skills related to the learning of History and Social Studies.There are also new challenges that emerge from studies such as certain level of gender differences related to knowledge and attitudes. Finally, on the basis of this general overview, the article proposes some conclusions related to the teaching and the training of History and Social Studies teachers.

Em quase todas as partes do mundo, os programas escolares exigem que o ensino da história desenvolva nos alunos a autonomia intelectual e o pensamento crítico. Há muito tempo não se vê mais a missão de incutir nas consciências uma narrativa única glorificando a nação ou a comunidade. No entanto, quando o ensino da história é questionado nos debates públicos, é sempre com referência a esse tipo de narrativa: embora não fazendo mais parte dos programas, esse continua sendo o único objeto dos debates. Este artigo dá inúmeros exemplos atuais de tais debates, antes de concluir que são provavelmente vãos e que as pessoas se iludem sobre os efeitos reais da história ensinada. Alguns exemplos também são dados a esse respeito.Almost everywhere in the world, official school curricula require that the teaching of history develop students' capacity for intellectual autonomy and critical thinking. They don't bear anymore the mission to instil in students' consciousness a single narrative glorifying the nation or the community. Still, whenever the teaching of history is called into question in public debates, it is always in reference to this sort of narrative: school curricula do not include it, yet it is the sole point of these debates. The article gives several examples of such debates throughout the world. It then concludes that these are most probably pointless debates as it seems we overestimate the actual effects of history education. Examples of this are also given.

ResumoEste texto tem como objetivo apresentar os percursos do ensino de História da América no Brasil nos cur- rículos de História para educação básica, em especí- fico, para o espaço escolar, hoje, denominado Ensino Médio. Para tanto tomaremos, à guisa de investigação, uma longa temporalidade: do final do século XIX ao início século XXI, por meio de uma revisão histórica das propostas curriculares oficiais.ResumenEste texto tiene como objetivo pre- sentar la trayectoria de la enseñanza de Historia de América Latina en Bra- sil, en los currículos de Historia para educación básica, especialmente en el espacio escolar conocido como En- señanza Media. Para ello, con fines investigativos, tomaremos una larga temporalidad: del final del siglo XIX al inicio siglo XXI, por medio de una revisión histórica de las propuestas cu- rriculares oficiales.AbstractThis article aims to describe the tea- ching of Latin American History in Bra- zil, in the history curriculum for basic education, especially in what is known in Brazil as Middle School. For research purposes, we will take an extensive period —from the late 19th century until the early 21st— for which we will review the official curriculum po- sitions.RésuméCe texte a l'objectif de présenter la trajectoire de l'enseignement de l'Histoire d'Amérique Latine au Brésil, dans les curriculums d'Histoire pour l'éducation basique, notamment dans l'espace connu comme l'enseignement au collège. Pour cela, avec les fins de la recherche, nous prendront une lon- gue temporalité: de la fin du XIX siècle au commencement du XXI siècle, au moyen d'un bilan historique des pro- positions officielles du curriculum.