Curating the Imagined Past: World Building in the History Curriculum

Mike Hill was concerned that his students were unable to genuinely inhabit the historical places they encountered in his lessons. Drawing on fields as varied as history-teacher research, philosophy, and literary and media theory, Hill identified ways to curate his students' constructions of 'secondary worlds' in the historical past, including narrative, maps, and material culture. In this article, Hill argues that teachers can powerfully shape their students' imagined pasts through careful curriculum planning, and outlines how doing so gave greater meaning to his students' understandings of the Weimar Republic.