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The author explores the association between experience and education and investigates the curriculum of place and the stories told and retold. Topics discussed include her review of the book "Controversial History Education in Asian Contexts," her teaching experience and assessment of the diverse points of view that historical events encompass.

Recent research on history teaching has begun to focus on political motivation. This paper is the result of the author’s dissertation, which investigates Latvian history teaching under the authoritarian regimes of Ulmanis and Stalin. It reveals the effects of authoritarianism on goals, curriculum, teaching materials and methods, and the teacher’s position in the classroom. The research undertaken attempts to discern how authoritarian political rule manipulates the teaching of national history to further its political goals, and the resulting effects. The article focuses on the teaching of Latvian history under the Soviet authoritarian regime in Latvia (1934–1940, 1940–1941/1944–1991), but includes discussion of the Nazi occupation and periods of democracy in Latvian history as a source of comparison in order to analyse the teaching of Latvian history in democratic and authoritarian societies and define the traits characteristic to authoritarian regimes. Authoritarian traits are revealed through comparisons of the purpose of history teaching as determined by the ruling order, the goal of history teaching, curriculum, methodology and materials, and teacher status under authoritarian regimes and democratic regimes. Results indicate that goals of history teaching become contrived under authoritarianism – politicised curriculum marginalises some groups, textbook authorship and choice is limited, and teachers become transmitters of the regime’s agenda resulting in marginalisation. This study deduces that two cultures of history teaching emerge – official history in school and unofficial history acquisition that helps maintain a sense of national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Current analysis is a segment in the investigation for the doctoral thesis titled 'The Teaching of History in the First Cycle of Basic Education: The concept of historical time in children and the contexts for their development' (Solé, 2009), undertaken with children of the 1st CBE (6 - 10 years) in a school in the north of Portugal. The study was conducted with two groups, namely, 1st and 2nd years (24 students) and 3rd and 4th years (25 students) throughout two scholastic years. Current investigation lies within the investigation mode of interpretation, predominantly qualitative (Erickson, 1986) and may be considered a longitudinal case study (Yin, 2003) since it describes the learning and understanding process of historical time by children between the 1st and 4th year of two groups during two years. Following typology by Stake (2000), it may be called an instrumental case study since it shows how children develop the concept of time and the difficulties experienced in the process of teaching/learning and to understand how learning occurs through several strategies and procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the works of Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire on teaching in general and history teaching by considering the challenges of contemporaneity, with a special reference to democracy and citizenship. Topics discussed include the development of an independent and critical historical thought by considering democracy; the importance of directing education and the teaching of history to young people with close social relations; and the importance of "historical conscience" for building civil and citizen awareness.