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The article discusses various aspects of disciplinary literacy, also referred to as historical literacy, within world history, and how such literacy informs a particular approach to K-12 history education. It attempts to define world historical literacy and how world history teachers must define the parameters for becoming literate in world history.

The article focuses on the methods for teaching Treaty of Versailles to the history students. Topics include differences in how the armistice was viewed by the German military and the allies; German military's conflicting expectations of the Treaty of Versailles; and German resentment towards Treaty of Versailles that led to World War II.

How self-evident is a colonial rationality today? This paper begins by tracing a ‘text trajectory’ about nineteenth century imperialism and colonialism through several educational spaces: curricular guidelines, textbook, teachers’ reflections on history education, material discursive classroom interactions and pupils’ communication about the topic. In a first step, we observe how entrenched and common sensical a great-power discourse about imperialism and colonialism is in current educational practices. We suggest that pupils ‘hyperstate’ a discursive position on colonialism which appears shocking when stated explicitly, but which is already subtly entextualised in curricular and media discourse. However, in a second step, the analysis orients to the molecular lines and foldings, the unexpected intra-connections and unplanned ‘lines of flight’. In this way, the apparent stability of the colonial rationality begins to wobble (just slightly). The memory practices enacted by pupils, curricula, teachers, authors and the material affordances of textbooks repeat entrenched colonial hierarchies and racisms, ‘and also’ exceed any overly simple understanding of how colonial rationality plays out in contemporary discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using an analytical framework based on the concept of historical distance, this article explores how Dutch history teachers and educators navigate between the past and the present when making curriculum decisions on the sensitive topic of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. Four history teachers and 2 museum educators were selected on the criteria of ethnicity, professional context, and student audience. They were interviewed twice, using open questions and a task-based design directed at 14–15-year-old students of various cultural backgrounds. Two conclusions are drawn: (1) the curriculum decisions of the selected participants can be interpreted as configurations of historical distance, which are the result of interactions between various types of knowledge, values, and beliefs. Some participants make a distinction between their own personal distancing and the curriculum decisions they take, while others do not or are unsure about deciding, and (2) curriculum decisions are difficult to predict. Some teachers and educators have a preference for certain distancing approaches but do not always follow it, depending on the historical sources they are dealing with. The conclusion discusses how research on history teaching can be facilitated by a deeper comprehension of the decisions teachers and educators make as navigators of historical distance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents the Quebec ministry of education’s (MELS) strategy for diversifying the national historical narrative that is transmitted in the province’s History and Citizenship Education program as well as the manner in which Francophone national history teachers put this strategy into practice. In bringing research on their social representations and historical consciousness together, this paper looks at some of the main challenges that these teachers face when specifically harmonizing two of history teaching’s central social functions for catering to narrative diversity. When seeking to adequately balance the transmission of a national identity reference framework with the development of autonomous critical thinking skills, it becomes clear that these teachers’ general quest for positivist-type, true and objective visions of the past as well as their overall attachment to the main markers of their group’s collective memory for knowing and acting Québécois impede them from fully embracing the diversification of the province’s historical narrative. The article ends by raising some important questions regarding the relevance of assisting teachers to authentically develop their own voice and vision for harmonizing the two aforementioned functions of history teaching and for being answerable to the decisions they make when articulating and acting upon such beliefs in class.

This article analyzes the social representations of a group of undergraduate students in preschool education, regarding the methodology for teaching social science. The analysis is centered on these students' conceptions of: a) the way children learn, and b) the way social science is taught. The results show why methodology is valued more, during initial professional training, than the objectives, contents, and goals of teaching social science and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the association of Melbourne Immigration Museum exhibition in the resources of history teachers to improve the historical thinking of the students. Topics include the use of museum analysis model developed by author Stephanie Moser, procedural knowledge development on history, the use of "Leaving Home" exhibition to provide the historical significance of the display.

The article looks at the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History (TAH) grant program, with a particular focus one grant recipient, the Model Collaboration: Rethinking American History (McRAH) program, which included a high-needs school district, a liberal arts college, and an urban historical society. Topics discussed include teaching strategies, teachers' attitudes towards the study and teaching of history, and the sustainability of teaching methodologies.

This article presents an interview with Spanish historian Joaquim Prats. He discusses role of teachers, particularly history teachers, in the modern-day era and comments on the changes involved in the profession since the 20th century in Spain. He also considers the relationship between history education and historical research.

This article presents the results of a Canadian study of prospective history teachers conducted in 2012-2013. Using an online questionnaire to assess a broad range of questions pertaining to their knowledge of history, their trust in historical sources, their experiences in high school and university classes, and their views about school history, it offers new empirical evidence on how the growing generation of Canadian teachers are prepared for the teaching profession. Implications of this study for teacher education and practice teaching are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of McGill Journal of Education is the property of McGill Journal of Education 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.)

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]

Copyright of Education et Societes is the property of INRP 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.)

In the context of pluralization, globalization, and developments in pedagogy and academic history, ideas about the functions and objectives of history teaching (HT) have significantly diversified. Though traditional conceptions still prevail among the broader public, in professional circles traditional ideas about HT are accompanied by deconstructionist and multi-perspective approaches, deriving from the notion that history should not be regarded as true and unambiguous. The objective of this study is to discern the variety of representations of HT in Estonia, as reflected in an Estonian teachers’ weekly newspaper, an “interface” between the broader public and narrower professional spheres and discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Studia Historica. Historia Contemporánea 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 article examines why California secondary school teachers rarely include units on the Middle East in their classrooms despite the importance of the region in the world today. In order to explain this gap, it will consider the massive knowledge demands on history teachers, state and federal testing practices, content standards that define what teachers must cover and how the students and parents themselves all limit a teacher's ability to include the Middle East in the public school classroom from kindergarten through grade twelve. After an examination of the issues involved, a few solutions are offered to assist in increasing education about the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes the educational vision of people's history an additional step, combining it with experiential approaches to democratic education that have developed over the past century. It places this vision within a global framework for human survival, democratic protections, creative research, and responsive education, and then presents at a local level the tools for students and adults to take control of their own historical study, control their heritage, and personalize the study of history on the very landscapes of their own communities. Through this approach, history becomes an exciting democratic exercise not merely in storytelling but in discovery of, participation in, and interaction with history on the very grounds of the community. The new approach to history, being tested in several communities, takes history as a collection of "stories," and roots and expands it to places, landscapes, and environment in everyday life, where history is unavoidable and where protecting and making history are ordinary household and community activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing history/social studies textbooks as a social construction designed to create a public memory of a national history and history of the Other, we investigated how U.S. history is represented in South Korea's social studies textbooks and what images and ideas of the United States are encouraged for South Korean students to take. To answer this question, we conducted a content analysis of the presentation of U.S. history in middle school social studies textbooks used in South Korean schools. Our findings show that (1) South Korea's textbook accounts of U.S. history predominantly portray the United States as a world leader in democracy and peace building; (2) the textbook accounts of U.S. history generally miss the events and figures that have historical significance for U.S. domestic contexts; and (3) the history of controversial U.S.–Korea relations as well as learning opportunities for historical thinking are also missing in the textbook accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of accountability, there is increased pressure to deliver high-quality education in a limited time period is greater than ever before. Teachers are often left to struggle with issue of determining what knowledge is necessary, and to what depth it may be explored in the classroom. There is a need for strategies to both incorporate the best forms of historical knowledge and to cope with the increased demands on our teachers. The purpose of this article is to examine the idea of what constitutes 'historical knowledge,' the issues of breadth and depth, and to suggest strategies for history teachers on how to deal with the challenge of finding the 'right' balance between breadth and depth in their history courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question 'what if?' has been asked by historians for generations. This article explains how history teachers can use students' own what-if questions to enhance their historical knowledge and understanding by offering educators a step-by-step plan for utilizing counterfactual history into their classrooms. Additionally, the author offers a brief discussion concerning the genre of counterfactual history, its use by historians and educators, and an examination of the counterfactual history sources that have been created for student use. Finally, a lesson plan is provided that uses widely accepted educational strategies such as K-W-L charts and 'chalk talks' and combines them with the unique tactic of using counterfactual history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using first-hand documents in history lessons is very important. One of the targets that the history lessons is to achieve is the comprehension and interpretation of those documents by students. In this study, 132 primary teacher candidates are asked to read and interpret various documents. Doing a descriptive study, data is gathered by hermeneutic method. In the analysis of the data, frequency charts of the clauses are composed. It has been noticed that hermeneutic approach has positive effect in history lessons. It is understood that the teacher candidates are fairly successful in interpreting clues, events and documents, filtering opinions, making inference and paraphrasing what they understood. That should be useful to do studies like this and similar to this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History as a school subject has been a thorny issue for advocates of peace education at least since the 1880s. Efforts, including the substitution of cultural history for military history, have been made to ensure that history teaching promotes international understanding, not propagates chauvinism. The Norden Associations of Scandinavia, which were involved in textbook revision since 1919, achieved some success by altering contents, but national myths remained central to each country's historical narrative, making it difficult to give history education its desired international orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of calls for increased literacy instruction in secondary content classes, there appears to be little change in practice. One reason for this may be that content area literacy courses inadequately prepared teachers to teach literacy skills specific to their content area. This article describes a program that embeds content area literacy instruction in a methods course taken by preservice history teachers. In this course, teaching candidates explore issues of literacy specific to history classrooms. Candidates' written reflections, examination responses, and course evaluations reveal the development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to include literacy instruction in history classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination of the role that history teachers play in cultivating students' imagination and empathy in Singapore. It discusses the importance that imagination and empathy have in engaging students to think critically about history. It explores how teachers can design a curriculum that allows students to understand the context of an event and bring them closer to the past. The article examines the history of housing development in Singapore and discusses a lesson that promotes classroom imagination and empathy.

Primary sources help us to visualize the past, bringing it into the present day. Primary sources are multifarious: they can be illustrations, original texts, maps and examples drawn from real-life events, all of which are important components of history textbooks. In order to use these sources, students can develop different skills, such as critical thinking, the ability to assess different views and the ability to think empathetically, all of which are crucial attributes in a democratic society where primary sources are to be used. To benefit from primary sources, history teachers and students must know how to use these sources effectively. However, it is a generally held belief that some Turkish history teachers do not use primary sources in history textbooks effectively. Th e purpose of this paper is to elicit history teachers' perceptions about primary sources in history textbooks. A qualitative approach was used in this study in order to gather data in response to the research questions, and the information itself was secured through a semi-structured interview. History teachers who joined this study were chosen from the province of Trabzon through random sampling. In the light of the data, it seems that the majority of history teachers do not know how to use primary sources presented in history textbooks effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an alternative approach to teaching the traditional history survey to future history teachers. The author states that history teachers must understand how historians frame historical problems, select and organize factual details, and construct historical stories. The author talks about a course he designed for future history teachers at the University of Northern Colorado. The course is entitled "Advanced Overview of American History." The article also discusses approaches to teaching World War II.

The teacher who is the focus of this interpretive case study, uses primary sources regularly with her students in ambitious ways but does so less from the current reform efforts, recent history education scholarship, or the climate of accountability and more from her individual goals for history education, most significantly, to prepare her students for informed citizenry. In this study, I use Barton and Levstik's (2004) work, Teaching History for the Common Good, as a framework for making sense of one middle school teacher's purpose for teaching history with primary sources. One implication of this study suggests that when a teacher closely aligns her pedagogical goals with her practice, she is more likely to teach ambitiously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparing international history textbooks creates a perfect opportunity for students to see the complexity and controversy of history interpretation of certain events. Such a critical comparative approach helps students understand how people in different countries perceive and interpret the Korean War, its aftermath, and its effects on current international relation-ships. In this article, we suggest that teachers approach the Korean War and the Six-Party Talks in two ways: Six-Party Discussion Table motivation activities and analysis of middle school history textbook excerpts about the Korean War in the six countries. Detailed lesson plans and handouts are provided for teachers to facilitate these discussions. These include the directions and procedures for the activities, teachers' guide, suggested answers, textbook excerpts from the United States, and textbook excerpts translated into English China, Japan, Russia, North Korea, and South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines prospective history teachers' thinking about ethnic and cultural diversity and their experiences of learning to teach about history in multicultural classrooms. The paper reviews the findings of a follow-up study of 22 Finnish student teachers during their nine-month teacher education programme. The data consist of questionnaire data and various written assignments of this sample, plus interviews with nine selected persons. According to the results, signs of continuity and transformation are apparent in the student teachers' thinking. The informants frequently described problems related to diversity, although most of them did not see diversity as changing their way of teaching history as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the need for the inclusion of studies of the history of Southeast Asia in the school curricula in Australia. It states that the Asian region has huge political and economic implications for Australia, but the region is under-represented in the school curricula. It is opined that the current global economic crisis may result in a decline in American influence and a rise of Chinese dominance. It mentions that much knowledge of Asia's pre-European history can be derived from China, and origins of its religion and culture can be found from India. It discusses the periods in the history of Southeast Asia that can be interesting to history teachers including the kingdoms from c. 500 CE to 1500 CE, the European influence in 1500s, and the post-colonial political violence.

This paper will undertake a critical review of the impact of virtual reality tools on the teaching of history. Virtual reality is useful in several different ways. History educators, elementary and secondary school teachers and professors, can all profit from the digital environment. Challenges arise quickly however. Virtual reality technologies show great pedagogical promise in the presentation of research. It is also asserted that these technologies provide real-world immersion in the 'historical past' in a way that was previously not possible. Can these systems truly take the place of classrooms, elementary and secondary, and the research projects of graduate studies? Ultimately, technological optimists argue that these technologies create an 'alternate reality'. Can history educators agree to such an 'alternate reality'? The principle conclusions drawn in this paper include a need for further development of virtual simulations, both in terms of their realism and the immediacy of the classroom experience. Further practical experimentation by history educators in the research environment is also key. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher historical consciousness influences pedagogical practices in the national history classroom. Its study within the context of societies with ambiguous ethnic dominance like Quebec fosters a better understanding of how teachers signify past inter-group relations for knowing and orienting themselves toward the "Other." Quebec's blurred majority/minority demarcations between Francophones and Anglophones, as well as its common but non-consensual history program for its parallel school system, provides innovative and productive ground for such research. This article discusses a study conducted on inter-group attitudes and mutual in-class treatment between Francophone and Anglophone history teachers when teaching the Secondary Four, History of Quebec and Canada course in Montreal. Whereas most Francophone respondents displayed an indifference to the social realities and historical experiences of Quebec Anglophones, all Anglophone respondents demonstrated a sense of empathy toward the former. As this discrepancy reflects each group's sociological status, it also implies a dissimilarity in how research participants historicize the "French-English conflict" in Quebec's past. In this context, the non-recognition of Anglo-Quebecois moral and historical agency possibly explains the prevalent indifference among Francophone respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human history is often shaped by the outcomes of arguments, not only in the sense of disputes between people or governments, but in the sense of the more rational pursuit of trying to convince others to accept or do certain things by offering reasons that are presented as compelling for so doing. Yet history teachers have done little to help students learn how to identify arguments in this sense, figure out what the arguments being offered are, and evaluate them. This article shows how a generic instructional technique—infusing direct instruction in skillful thinking into content instruction—can be used in the teaching of American history in ways that help students develop and use these thinking skills and that enhance their deep content understanding of the history being taught. The context is a secondary school classroom studying American history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When teachers in elementary and middle school classrooms portray history as an immutable sequence of certain facts, dates, and events, young learners tend to view the past, and by extension the future, as something fixed and inevitable. Learning about the past through investigating biographies can help counter this tendency by teaching students to recognize that individuals and groups have the agency to make history and shape the future. In this article, the author presents three instructional strategies in which learners make use of graphic organizers to investigate the historical contexts and chronologies of individuals' lives. Students learn how people have effected historical change and worked together to preserve continuity with the past. They also learn that the values and attitudes that motivated individuals and groups to act as they did were in large measure the result of historically specific social structures and institutional arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today there are little more of 3 million chemist all over the world producing about 800,000 papers a year. They produce new substances – from some hundreds in 1800 to about 20 million now – the vast majority artificial. This rate is growing quite fast. Once the majority of chemistry teachers all over the world used textbooks as the main (sometimes the only) source of information, we became, without wanting to... history teachers! If ‘scientific literacy’ is the aim of science lessons in school, it is much more than the literacy now developed in science classrooms. It must include an understanding of the nature and process by which scientific activities are carried out. Recognition of the exponentially chemistry knowledge growth and the incompleteness of the current chemistry textbooks are thus intimately related to recognition of the need for recurrent historical teaching models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article arose from a series of workshops with practitioners in early years teaching. The workshops addressed how history could be taught to very young children, three- to five-years-old. The authors were aware that there was a widely held belief that history was inappropriate for the very young child. The authors felt that this was because of a common view that history was solely concerned with facts. There was also a prevalent view that, as history was about chronology (time), it was too difficult a subject for very young children, for whom ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’ had little meaning. This article argues that successful teaching of history is possible with very young children if the teaching concentrates on interpretation and enquiry. Through using story, young children are able to interpret the behaviour, motivation and intent of the characters. The practitioners are able to question the child as to why s/he interprets the character's actions in the way that s/he does. In other words the practitioner asks for evidence: the essence of history. When considering time, the authors' note that young children have a subjective understanding of time and this can be used to develop a growing awareness of chronology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a strategy designed to improve students' knowledge of historical content and competence in historical thinking, for beginning and experienced history teachers and history teaching method professors. Conventional practices in using primary sources; Information on the use of primary sources in teaching; Examples of the use of first-, second- and third-order primary documents in investigating the period of Cold War; Ways of assessing the affective dimensions of students.

Addressing the possibilities opened up for the teaching of social studies by a growing body of critical literature in and about history, this paper examines ways in which history/social studies educators might respond responsibly to the challenges posed by that literature in order to thoughtfully re-consider why we learn history, what we do (and could do) with it, and for what (and whose) purposes. With much of what was previously taken for granted in the poetics and politics of history now under scrutiny, this paper explores what it might mean to teach history that is aware of its construction and what opportunities such an awareness might afford the pedagogical practice through which students not only come to know a past but also to realize a present and a future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central purpose of this exploratory investigation is to describe and analyze the teaching of history in five classrooms, each representing one of five typologies developed earlier, the storyteller, scientific historian, relativist/reformer, cosmic philosopher, and eclectic (Evans, 1989b). The study focuses on the effects of each teacher's conceptions of history on the transmitted curriculum and on student beliefs. Data collection included interviews with teachers, in-depth observation, and interviews with students. Results suggest that the impact of teacher conceptions vary considerably, that the teaching of history has little impact on student belief in four of the classrooms, and a profound impact in one, and that approaches to the teaching of history are linked, implicitly, to competing ideological orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]