Historical Thinking, Culture, and Education

Historicus* in Resonance, Understanding, Encounter

Friedemann Scriba — Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this miniature the author of the book “Historicus* - Wie wir Geschichte erleben” (2023) presents his key ideas to an English-speaking audience. He analyses individual “historical acts”, describing them under the perspective of “Resonance”, “Understanding”, and “Encounter” and uses various language games to do this (e.g. Hartmut Rosa, Charles Taylor, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Avishai Margalit or Emanuel Levinas). At the end he transforms his theoretical results into the profile of a persona called Historicus*

Is there a place for hope in history education?

Bjorn Wansink — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

To hope is an integral part of being a human (Webb, 2012). Several educators have suggested that hope should play a crucial role in education to empower young people to shape their own futures and build resilience (hooks, 2003; Freire, 1994; Jacops, 2005; Vlieghe, 2019; de Winter, 2024). I propose that history can and should offer inspiring examples to provide hope for the future, but teaching "hopeful histories" presents both historiographical and ideological challenges. With this miniature I want to start a broader discussion by exploring the question: Is there a place for hope in history education?

"Can genocide be prevented?"

Ulrik Holmberg — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article presents the findings of a qualitative study that explored how 53 students (15-year-olds) narratively determine historical significance in written assignments after an inquiry that compared three genocides, namely the Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide, and the Rwandan genocide. This study takes up the proposal to distinguish between relevance and significance in establishing historical significance. Significance refers to the knowledge and procedures that are related to the historian´s discipline and important for understanding a historical phenomenon. Relevance refers to historical events and processes that people perceive as relevant to understand the present world. The American Inquiry Design Model, which centers on a compelling question, can combine a qualifying dimension of significance with a contemporary dimension of relevance, to qualify students’ historical thinking in combination with a student life-world perspective. The results show that the two dimensions converge and amplify each other and are important to address in history education.

Practicing connections

Britta Breser, Christian Heuer — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In light of multiple crises in the Anthropocene, the required major transformation in various societal and political realms is fraught with challenges and obstacles. In particular, the areas of education and training play a pivotal role in being able to respond “responsibly” to these ambiguities. Using two examples, one from the practice of political action, one from the practice of historical theory, the text problematizes the difficulties, but also the possibilities of “doing” responsibility through the lens of critical historical-political education.

Overcoming anthropocentrism

Heather E. McGregor, Sara Karn — Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

History educators are well positioned to connect, or reconnect, young people to their environmental relations, if they can expand the purposes and vehicles for history learning. This effort may include historical thinking, while also moving beyond it towards better understanding and upholding our relationships to the planet. We offer history educators a set of considerations as they plan experiences for learning that bring environmental topics into their teaching, bridging between theoretical literature and practical guidance. The four facets of experiences for learning on which we focus are: 1) eco-emotional literacy, 2) nature connectedness through experiential learning, 3) storying, and 4) inquiry practices. All facets are characterized by understanding how the past, present, and future are connected in ways that move towards overcoming anthropocentrism. To illustrate the possible learning outcomes of this approach to history education, we describe a teaching unit entitled “What is the story of this watershed?”

How moving are the victims’ stories?

Anna Schor-Tschudnowskaja, Felicitas Auersperg — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article is about how dealing with historical experiences of violence and their victims shapes politically relevant attitudes towards violence and how this can be anchored in history didactics. We are interested in the situation in which events that occurred far in the past do not leave pupils indifferent, but rather affect them. Using a nationwide history competition among Russian students, we examine several dozen student works to understand how students engage with narratives about victims and what reactions these narratives evoke. Our findings show that while students show great sympathy for the suffering of victims, this sympathy does not necessarily translate into an attitude that can prevent future violence and promote attitudes critical of power. We argue that historical consciousness arising from the emotional confrontation with historical experiences of suffering is strongly dependent on the prevailing political culture.