Social and Education History

Learning History Through Wonder. Three Approaches To Teaching In The Classroom

2025-01-28T12:23:16+01:00

This article proposes the emotion of wonder as a key pedagogical strategy to revitalise the teaching of contemporary history at university level, especially in disciplines such as International Relations, Journalism, Political Science and other related degrees. In a context in which history subjects have seen a decline in their academic weight, it is suggested that wonder can be a powerful tool to rekindle interest in the subject, facilitating not only a deeper understanding of historical processes, but also their connection to the political and social challenges of the present. Through this approach, students are not only expected to acquire knowledge, but also to develop essential critical skills, such as reflective analysis, intellectual curiosity and the ability to contextualise historical events in a contemporary framework. The article proposes three key methods for articulating the teaching of history: historical narrative, autobiography and the history of ideas, adapted to current political and social issues. In this way, a dynamic history is proposed that invites students to explore the past with an active vision that is relevant to the challenges of the present.

Historical and Heritage Learning in Early Childhood Education: Developing Citizenship through Controversial Heritages

2025-04-29T16:48:51+02:00

The formation of a critical and participatory citizenship should begin at the Early Childhood Education stage, in which the discovery and analysis of the immediate context, heritage and the current and historical problems associated with it should be encouraged. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the conceptual change of pupils at the 5-year-old level on heritage, controversial heritages and citizenship after the development of a learning situation around the cabezos of Huelva –controversial elements of Huelva's cultural and natural heritage–, evaluating their potential to promote historical, heritage and civic learning. To this end, a semi-structured group interview and an individual drawing were used as data collection instruments, complementing this information with participant observation, the audio recording of the sessions and the pupils' productions. In the analysis of the information, the ATLAS.ti v.25 software and a qualitative category system were used as a reference for its interpretation. The results obtained show a progression in the pupils' concept of heritage, moving towards a perspective that encompasses a wider range of heritage manifestations; in their positioning on the heritage controversy addressed; and in the forms of citizen participation they contemplate.

Thinking Historically from a Controversial Present: Causes and Consequences of the Spanish-Mapuche Conflict According to the Students

2025-05-12T14:21:13+02:00

Through this research we aim to accomplish two objectives: firstly, to analyze the knowledge of middle and high school students in the Bio Bio region (Chile) regarding the causes and consequences of the Hispanic-Mapuche conflict (XVI and XVII centuries); and, secondly, to understand how the current and controversial dimension of the Mapuche conflict affects the students’ reasoning about this historical context. This qualitative research involved the participation of 231 students from eighth to tenth grade from different educational institutions in the Bio Bio Region. In order to collect the information, an open-ended questionnaire was applied. The answers were analyzed through a rubric to assess the student’s performance level on cause and consequence knowledge regarding the conflict. The results revealed that students have a deficit when understanding the complexity of the causes of the historical conflict. Additionally, several influences derived from the ongoing Mapuche conflict were detected, such as the terminology used by the students and the manner they build their explanatory reasoning on its causes and consequences.

Classics and Canon in Secondary Education: Exploring the Thinking of 30 Literature Teachers in Spain

2025-05-15T17:14:22+02:00

The controversy surrounding the canon since the 1970s, as well as the multicultural nature of contemporary societies, has led to the emergence of several studies, both empirical and based on teachers' beliefs, which analyse how the reading of the classics fits into this new plural context. However, there are no such approaches in Spain from the teachers' perspective. To address this issue, a qualitative case study is presented based on interviews with 30 secondary school teachers. Data were analysed thematically and coded with NVivo 12 software, resulting in the identification of four main categories: teacher beliefs about their relationship with the classics, knowledge, beliefs about the sociocultural factor, and teaching practices and strategies. The findings reveal that teachers think it is important to read the classics, but they also argue that they must be approached in ways that engage students in interpreting them.