History education in transition – transcultural dialogue on historical thinking, learning, and culture
We live in a time of transitions and instability. This raises the question of how history education can respond and what target concepts, values, and norms should guide future directions. Global challenges such as the Corona pandemic, war in various places around the world, migration and the emerging consequences of climate change seem to make international cooperation and dialogue more necessary than ever. Moreover, the digital age, with tightly networked communication channels, continues to provide learners with access to a variety of narratives and discourses across national borders. In face of a global, networked community, neither the teaching of nationalist historical narratives (Carretero 2015) nor approaches to teaching disciplinary methods to learners (Wineburg 2002) seem to be appropriate for fostering historical thinking and collective problem solving, including cross-border action. Other target concepts prove to be rather static or do not take historical thinking beyond individual constructions of historical narratives into account. Additionally, there is still a lack of approaches that theorize ways of using history for the development of historical agency in the present and of putting it into practice. Only recently have there been increasing voices that seek to trigger the development of discursive skills, discussions on collective affiliations, historical understandings of interwoven structures, worldviews, and institutions to strengthen the promotion of civic engagement and peoples’ democratic development (Barton/Levstik 2004; Carretero & Perez-Manjarrez, 2019). However, more comprehensive theorizing and empirical work has yet to be done.
We argue that global challenges as outlined above, and the notion of transition, must lead to a transcultural scholarly dialogue on concepts of history education embedded in different educational contexts, connected to state policies, societal values and norms. Deliberative dialogue, social justice, inclusion and agency may serve as a starting point for new theoretical developments and practical approaches. In the meantime, the question remains open whether epistemological principles, second-order concepts, (multi-)perspectivity and controversiality, and the concept of historical consciousness originally rooted in a discourse on liberal democracies can serve as a basis to renew international theory-building on historical thinking and learning.
With the new journal Historical Thinking, Culture, and Education (HTCE) we want to offer a critical space for the reflection and exchange of ideas about the above-mentioned aspects. For the first issue, we seek theoretical and empirical publications that will help foster transcultural and transnational dialogue on the current state of history education and its needs for future developments. From an academic side, the hope is to broaden perspectives and find solutions to upcoming societal problems. Our goal is to support the development of theories and the expansion of research on historical thinking and learning toward a more comprehensive understanding of the preconditions, contexts, and processes of historical thinking and learning all over the globe. Related to this is the hope that translation and scholarly dialogue, combined with a high awareness of power relations and hierarchies, can lead to mutual understanding and the resolution of tensions. Starting points may be offered by interdisciplinary research practices with their characteristic "work on transitions," their "readiness for translation," and "transitional logic" (e.g., gender studies, postcolonial studies, citizenship education). Often, academic discourse is dominated by those with economic or social power. These are usually the scholars from the "Western" world. As a result, relevant perspectives are lost or not even noticed. We therefore particularly encourage scholars from non-Western backgrounds to submit papers and contribute to the discussion.
Two different types of submissions are possible:
Original research papers and brief discussions on history education («miniatures»):
- The research papers must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words and are subject to a double-blind peer review.
- The miniatures must be between 1,000 and 5,000 words and are suitable to initiate discussions about history education in a broader sense. They can include suggestions and ideas for educational innovations, new theoretical concepts, cross-cultural research, interdisciplinary approaches etc. Miniatures are accompanied with the possibility to enter into discourse with each other (e.g., blog discussion, video messages – curated by the editorial team). They are reviewed by the editors.
Perspectives for the first issue could be:
- Which concepts of time and space as well as epistemological approaches to historical knowledge guide history teaching or extracurricular history education in different places of the world? How are epistemological knowledge and plausibility dealt with in narratives and artifacts of public history?
- Which kind of theoretical concepts and models may foster our understanding and our reflections on history education and its objectives in a networked society and a globalized world? To what extent do existing models and concepts such as historical consciousness and historical thinking need to be expanded, more closely connected, or revised?
- Which understanding of «context» and «culture» is relevant for the study of historical thinking and history education? What objectives and which learning outcomes (cognitive, emotional, value-driven, identity-defining) are connected to the introduction of concepts such as transculturality, hybrid identities, third space, global and networked history?
- How are the narratives presented in the history classroom or beyond interwoven with individual and collective identities? What narratives are forgotten, neglected, or not told?
- What narratives about the history of one's own country or nearby living environment do students/people bring with them, and to what extent is this connected to their individual and collective sense of identity, historical consciousness, political awareness, and orientation towards the common good? What progress of their historical thinking could be initiated and with what goal?
- What are the ways to deal with contested or difficult histories, for example, in (post-)conflict societies, but also beyond? How can history education contribute to reconciliation?
- How can global historical perspectives or networked histories between different world regions be conveyed without overemphasizing cultural differences and reinforcing "othering processes" (us versus them)? What awareness-raising actions are necessary? What values underlie such educational approaches and how can they be justified?
- To what extent are (transcultural) contexts and hybrid spaces being reshaped by a culture of digitality, or are they only just being co-produced?
- …
We hope to gather articles from different parts of the world which hopefully are a starting point for initiating a transnational dialogue regarding these issues.
Author Guidelines and Submission
Please submit your manuscript online and adhere to the listed requirements.
Timetable
- submissions for 1st issue are possible until September 30th, 2023
- Reviews completed: 2-4 month after submission
- Revisions due to: 1 month after review
- Publication: February 1st, 2024
Editors of the first issue
Monika Waldis, FHNW School of Education, Switzerland
Sebastian Barsch, University of Cologne, Germany
Contact
julia.thyroff@fhnw.ch
Editorial team of HTCE
Editor in-chief
Monika Waldis, FHNW School of Education, Switzerland
Editors
Laura Arias Ferrer, University of Murcia, Spain
Sebastian Barsch, University of Cologne, Germany
Christoph Kühberger, University of Salzburg, Austria
Martin Nitsche, FHNW School of Education, Switzerland
Paul Zanazanian, McGill University of Montréal, Canada
Administrative Editor
Julia Thyroff, FHNW School of Education, Switzerland