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What do secondary school students in Ontario, Canada, need to know about the world in which they live in? How did a secondary school 'World Politics' course that emerged in Ontario in the 1960s address this question? The 'World Politics' course that emerged in the 1960s clearly came about as a result of societal and educational developments. Educators in nineteenth-century Ontario felt no need for such a course. In more recent times, post-Second World War, the discipline of history underwent dramatic upheavals. The opportunities for new courses meant possibilities to reach out to new groups of students. Simultaneously, with this change, the importance of international relations in the history curriculum was reduced but this also allowed for its re-emergence elsewhere. Finally, 'World Politics' emerged as one of the responses to the need for an understanding of a much more complex world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the findings contained in Van Fleet and Wren's (2005) report on the teaching of history in business schools indicated that the prevalence of this instruction at the doctoral and undergraduate levels has decreased since their survey in 1983. This dialogue promotes the inclusion of history and historical context in the management/business curriculum and discusses several benefits that may be derived from its study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the potential of history as a subject to contribute to a "knowledge economy". Global trends in curricula reforms have often emphasised generic competences and development of students' critical thinking to benefit the future economic position of citizens and nations. However, viewing knowledge in these terms presents a reductive view, particularly given that there is no clear definition of the nature of the knowledge which could or should be universally deployed in the pursuit of a "knowledge economy". This paper presents an argument that a focus on "powerful" disciplinary knowledge and "valuable" frameworks of knowledge in areas such as history education, rather than generic competences and skills, would better serve a knowledge economy. Drawing on two empirical studies from England and New Zealand, which present different policy contexts, the paper explores the extent to which the potential of history education is being realised to develop such powerful and valuable knowledge. The data reveal similar patterns in both contexts; despite the history teachers in both countries sharing a disciplinary understanding of the subject this is not comprehensively reflected in the curricula they construct, and there are few attempts to create coherent frameworks of knowledge. This suggests that the opportunities for history education to support the development of a knowledge economy have not been fully realised and exploited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a roundtable based on presentations of a plenary session at the 26th Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society took place at Wits University in June 2017. Topics discussed include imbalanced rhetoric of nation-building and history teaching, current school history curriculum and limitations and constraints of making history compulsory subject. It also mentions issues of xenophobia and lack of nationhood and social cohesion in South Africa.

The purpose of this qualitative, single case study is to investigate how teacher-created curricula addresses key Native American events in early U.S. history and to determine if such curricula provided students with accurate representations of Native American content. To do this, we used discourse analysis to consider the meanings of words and phrases, as well as the underlying assumptions and intentions of the teacher-created curricula and the experiences it claims to represent. Given the presence and use of dominant narratives to preserve power systems, curricula that deconstructs the colonizing narrative and historical representation of Native Americans can encourage the active destruction of such narratives. By analyzing four teacher-created narratives, we found is that even when a teacher creates content with the intent to be more historically accurate, the curricula still reflects a dominant narrative that privileges White settlers over Native Americans. We then provide suggestions for teachers who wish to design more culturally relevant and appropriate curricula on Native American content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the silencing and voicing of sensitive topics in history education from a cross-national and multilevel perspective. In this mixed-method study, we undertook a quantitative analysis of a 'teaching sensitive issues' questionnaire and qualitative analyses of history curricula and teachers' verbal responses. The findings show that most respondents were aware of societal and self-silencing but were also committed to voicing and giving a voice to pupils. Focusing on the issues found to be most sensitive - immigration and Islam - in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Israel, the analysis of national curricula indicates a climate of 'voicing' rather than silencing. Analysis of teachers' responses showed strong awareness of the relationship between the sensitivity of the history of immigration and that of Islam and the relationship between pupil diversity and self-silencing on these issues. It appears that, in some cases, apprehension of pupils' voices led teachers to self-silence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers of history will sooner or later encounter issues that are met with disbelief, protest, or feelings of discomfort by the pupils. This special issue aims to contribute to the field of research into teaching sensitive and controversial issues in history by integrating historical, educational and socio-psychological perspectives and theories. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, an interdisciplinary group of scholars studied history teachers' perceptions regarding sensitive issues in their teaching in their respective countries: Austria, Belarus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Serbia. Through cross-country analysis and in depth study of specific cases, it provides insights into the particular issues that are considered sensitive and the many factors at play, such as the individual teacher (his/her skills, knowledge, beliefs and identity conception), the local classroom composition, the national curriculum and national policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish History Education Journal (TUHED) is the property of Ahmet Simsek and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This research explored the extent to which secondary school history teachers in England willingly engaged with a series of concurrent curriculum reforms, and the factors that shaped their level of agency in the process. The curriculum has been the target of sustained reform by many governments, and accountability measures are frequently used to compel teachers to engage with the process of change, as teachers are often seen as resistant to change. Data were obtained through online surveys conducted annually from 2015 to 2017, providing a large, longitudinal data set of over 1100 individual responses. Responses to closed items were analysed using SPSS to generate descriptive and inferential statistics, and qualitative responses were coded to identify key themes. Generally the teachers were reluctant to engage in the process of reform. There was some statistically significant variation between teachers in different types of school. Teachers' willingness to engage with changes was also related to their sense of subject identity. However it is evident that accountability measures dominates teachers' thinking, and even impacts on what teachers choose to do in non-examined phases of the curriculum. This appears to diminish teachers' agency when creating a curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presented in this article examines the internal consistency of the formal Swedish history curriculum for the upper-secondary school. The research question addresses the extent to which disciplinary aspects—also referred to as vertical knowledge discourses—are transferred from fields of knowledge production to the Swedish formal history curriculum. A qualitative research design is adopted and document content analysis is used to examine the presence of vertical knowledge discourses in the aims, the core content and the level descriptors of the curriculum. The results show that a vertical knowledge discourse is present in two areas of the curriculum: the aims and the section that defines the content of history education. An exception is identified in the section of the curriculum that focuses on assessment, the knowledge requirements. Here, the presence of vertical knowledge is marginal. The conclusion is drawn that there is an inconsistency regarding the presence of vertical knowledge discourses in the Swedish history curriculum. This inconsistency can diminish the availability of vertical knowledge for the students and also lead to a situation where control over history education to some degree is transferred from curriculum designers and teachers to other agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Research on History Didactics, History Education & History Culture (JHEC) is the property of Wochenschau Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Research on History Didactics, History Education & History Culture (JHEC) is the property of Wochenschau Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia de la Educacion is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study focuses on problems in pupils’ reasoning when they situate historical phenomena in time. The context is the Dutch curriculum with 10 eras and characteristic features, which was implemented to support pupils in orientating themselves in time. Twenty-two pupils aged 6-12 conducted assignments in which they had to place historical phenomena in time. Next to problems that were described in previous studies, problems were identified that related to the names and icons of the 10 eras, which sometimes helped, but also hindered pupils in their reasoning. Awareness of these problems is helpful for teachers, teacher trainers and educational policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I deal with marketing's historical ignorance, the importance of using history in marketing and the meaning of historical perspective, suggest how to operationalize and integrate historical perspective without giving detailed and comprehensive guidelines, and how to add historical perspective to the marketing curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the reform by the liberal-conservative government of Swedish upper secondary education in 2011, history was recognized as an important part of citizenship education and was introduced into the curriculum for vocational education and training (VET) tracks. Through the concepts of classification and framing, this article explores the process of constructing the history syllabus for VET. The data consist of archived material from the working group responsible for the history curriculum under the Swedish National Agency for Education. The analysis shows that there are competing discourses concerning the relative emphasis on competencies and skills and concerning the emphasis on contemporary and modern history. Although historians, history teachers and other agents are invited to respond to the content of the curriculum, the respondents have no influence on the knowledge structure of the curriculum, which is controlled by agents of the dominant educational ideology. From a critical perspective, this article suggests that the curriculum reflects the instrumental and neoconservative message of the reform through strong classification and framing and through the emphasis on general abilities and a contemporary history that has a more direct explanatory value to contemporary society.

The article discusses the great uncertainty about the course of contemporary history, which many have increased in recent years. It reports on the dwindling of the approval of values that were once universally accepted and above all accepted in the western industrialized nations. They concretized themselves in the general obligation to the rationality of the judgment.

Using data from economics and history courses taught across multiple semesters, the authors show that a triweekly meeting frequency improves student performance relative to a biweekly meeting frequency. There is evidence that this effect operates through two channels. First, there is an indirect effect that operates through attendance. While greater attendance improves course score, this effect is less in a triweekly course. Second, there is a direct positive effect to more frequent course meetings on student performance. These two effects combine to increase student performance by 3 to 9 percentage points when meeting triweekly instead of biweekly. While students perform better overall on a triweekly meeting schedule, there are more absences and less consistent attendance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated students’ ideas about historical significance in Korea. Using qualitative, task-based interviews, I interviewed 28 secondary students who had taken Korean and world history courses. In response to various historical contexts, these Korean students relied primarily on a schematic narrative template consisting of ‘tragedy,’ ‘struggle,’ and ‘freedom and equality’ to judge historical significance. This schematic narrative template reflected the national identity which Korea established in the postcolonial context after independence in 1945. By applying this template to world history, moreover, students showed strong sympathy towards the oppressed, and this reflected their resistance to colonial and class hegemony. However, imposing this template resulted in significant omissions and distortions that might hinder the development of critical historical thinking. These findings suggest that a variety of cultural tools are necessary for Korean students to develop more complete and nuanced historical understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Egyptian Christian (Coptic) minority’s marginalization in politics and the Egyptian public sphere has been well investigated by several scholars. However, while many scholars and activists continue to call for the inclusion of the Coptic era in Egyptian history curricula, only very few studies have actually analyzed how that historical era—and Copts in general—are presented in these curricula. Thus, I conduct a textual analysis of Egyptian history textbooks from 1890 until 2017. I find that, with few exceptions—contrary to widely circulated speculations—Coptic history has consistently been included, but allocated a disproportionately smaller space vis-à-vis other eras. The analysis also illustrates how Copts are constructed as a largely persecuted and victimized people, with few contributions—implying a narrative arc of decline. Thus, to render Egyptian history curricula more culturally relevant and inclusive, curricular reform efforts need to be reframed to more strategically focus on questions such as how the Copts, and the significance and continuity of their contributions throughout Egyptian history, are portrayed. This study also seeks to offer an integrated framework for analyzing the representation of minorities in textbooks globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines "Teaching Hidden History," a team-taught hybrid graduate history course implemented between George Mason University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University that tasked students with creating online learning modules on the historical narratives of artifacts. It looks at the course objectives, activities, and educational outcomes.

The article discusses the method used to increase enrollment in the history program at Arizona State University (ASU) and offers advice on how a similar strategy can be used at other universities and colleges. Particular attention is given to designing history courses focused on the history of a specific profession, such as engineering, that are delivered to students online.

The author discusses the incorporation of teaching about cultural change as an opportunity in teaching history. He discusses the use of the case study approach to teach particular segments of history, the ability to incorporate various disciplines within the teaching, and presents a summary of a prototype program at George Mason University.

This paper proposes the concept of 'Curricular Epistemic Socialisation' as a process through which the school curriculum shapes the disciplinary epistemologies and identities of high school (11-18) teachers. Drawing on a survey of history teachers in Scotland (n=101), a cohort comparison is made between those trained since the introduction in 2010 of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and those who qualified to teach before this. Analysis of this data suggests that the CfE-trained cohort hold weaker subject identities (p=0.0002) and a more instrumental view of the purpose of the subject (p=0.052) than their more experienced colleagues. Although this is a small study, the paper proposes that something stronger than a performative response to policy change. Instead, the evidence implies that curricular framing can encourage teachers to adopt new epistemic frames. The paper concludes by suggesting a qualitative follow-up study to investigate the processes behind this socialisation and teachers' consciousness of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Together with the changes experienced in the field of education around the world, it is expected that the global focus will shift from teacher-centred education to student-centred education; furthermore, attention will be paid to the needs of students to ensure that they are implementing their learning in practice throughout the entire education process. In this context, as a student-centred theory, social constructivist theory is prominent as it is essentially based on cooperative learning and displays the importance of a student's peers in the realisation of learning. As it is compatible with the multicultural and multi-perspective structure of history education, considering the needs of students and history education and their daily life acquisitions, the target of developing historical thinking abilities has become more important in their academic development within social constructivist theory. In terms of the development of the historical thinking abilities of students, in addition to active learning that will attract their attention, activities must be developed that are centred on different learning methods and strategies. This research aims to show how these types of activities can be performed in the context of history education and how this can transform students' historical thinking abilities. The research includes the education delivered by researchers in the 2016-2017 fall and spring semesters for a period of 14 weeks with 11 students on activities related to Cyprus history as well as a comparison of the pre-test and post-test results of a historical thinking skill scale that was developed by the researchers. The historical thinking skill scale developed by the researchers was used in the process of collecting the quantitative data and a semistructured interview form was used in collecting qualitative data. At the end of the pre-test and post-test, the results were examined to determine if there were any significant differences. Additionally, based on the opinions provided by the students, it was seen that the activities had a positive impact on their historical thinking skills and the requirement for such activities in Cyprus history classes was demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Research on History Didactics, History Education & History Culture (JHEC) is the property of Wochenschau Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Research on History Didactics, History Education & History Culture (JHEC) is the property of Wochenschau Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Holocaust was one of the most significant events of contemporary history and still has great relevance for current times. This paper analyses the portrayal of the Holocaust in secondary education history textbooks in Spain. As this type of research has grown in the international arena, the need to review critically this event in Spanish textbooks has become ever more evident. This paper reviews what has already been written on this subject in the international arena and makes a number of methodological observations both quantitatively and qualitatively. In the review, a number of deficiencies in the representation of the Holocaust were found. This strongly indicates the need to contextualise the study of the Holocaust and frame it within a structural perspective that would account for its multi-causal origin. Attention is also drawn to the need to improve the content, dispel some myths and improve deficiencies identified in textbooks on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study is presented which examines the development of an 11th grade history survey course at the Buckingham Browne and Nichols (BB&N) college preparatory school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It discusses the school's emphasis on critical reading, argumentation, and question skills in creating the history curriculum.

There are many areas of overlap between history and fiction. Teachers of history have long recognized this connection and used a range of fictional accounts in their teaching. In this article, we argue that fiction is a double-edged sword that must be handled carefully. On the one hand, it presents compelling characters and accounts that provide powerful connections with the past often missing from school history. On the other hand, the narrative force that draws the reader in and connects him or her to the experience of the characters also mitigates against alternative readings of the situation, undercutting the reader's ability to understand the past in complex and critical terms. We contend that in the hands of effective teachers, the double-edged sword of fiction can be a valuable and effective tool in the teaching of history. We begin by exploring three scholarly conversations around the nature of history, history education and learning theory. We then discuss the general relationship between history and fiction, move on to describe two broad categories of fiction and their particular connections to history and history teaching and consider some of the tensions between history and fiction. Finally, we investigate pedagogical implications for effective use of fiction in the teaching of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the teacher perceived applicability of historical topics for interpretational history teaching and the criteria teachers use to evaluate this applicability. For this study, 15 expert history teachers in the Netherlands striving for interpretational history teaching were purposefully selected. Teachers were asked to mention historical topics using a ranking task technique to rank topics in order of applicability and to elaborate on how the topics were ranked. The results showed a large variation in perceived applicability among topics, both within and between teachers. Eight different topicapplicability criteria were discerned in the teachers' elaborations: (1) topic knowledge; (2) topic affinity; (3) topic constructedness; (4) topic deconstructability; (5) topic abstractedness; (6) topic sensitivity; (7) topic materials; and (8) topic inclusion in the history curriculum. We found that teachers tended to judge topics as applicable for interpretational history teaching partly depending on the degree of 'canonised interpretativity' in lesson materials and the curriculum, and to the degree to which they belonged to 'cold' (morally neutral) or 'hot' (morally sensitive) history. A theoretical implication of the findings is that interpretational history teaching is topic-dependent. Teachers can be supported to teach history as interpretation by structured pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article theorizes on the role of school subjects, especially history, in multicultural and intercultural education, arguing that to ensure intercultural learning there is a need to integrate these curricular intentions in subject teaching. However, the epistemological reorganization that such integration involves will challenge both a traditional structured content knowledge, and the multicultural research focused on deconstructing these traditions. This article investigates Michael Young's concept of 'powerful knowledge' as a way to incorporate knowledge in the discourses of intercultural education. While proponents of the intercultural perspective emphasise educational policies and socialisation, advocates of powerful knowledge tend to dismiss such political interference. In order to use powerful knowledge in this context the concept is reconceptualised by relating it to curriculum theory and Gert Biesta's conceptual distinction between educational purposes. Finally, this intersection is pursued through the example of history education. When acknowledging that societal needs, policy and disciplinary boundaries are interrelated, the perspective of 'powerful knowledge' can bring the potential of subject knowledge to intercultural research, and thus prove useful in identifying the guidelines necessary to develop History as a contemporary relevant subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the challenges for teachers in positioning them as independent curriculum makers. History teachers in New Zealand have recently entered uncharted territory with the abandonment of prescribed topics for history and a new-found authority to determine the selection of historical knowledge taught to their senior secondary students. This paper examines the complex nature of the teacher's new role and responsibilities and argues that curriculum achievement objectives and national assessment places significant constraints upon teachers' selections of historical knowledge. There is the potential for substantive historical knowledge to be downplayed in favour of procedural knowledge and the potential for assessment drivers to dominate or distort selection of knowledge for history. Local curriculum making places a heavy burden of responsibility upon teachers with implications for students' access to powerful historical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]