Knowing historical conceptions and narratives, thinking about current educational practices

Abstract

Through a (nigh) comparison between historical narratives written by students with 10 and 11 years old and by future history teachers still in training, it is possible to think about the educational senses given to today's teaching and learning of that subject, in Portugal.

In a 21st century marked by social tensions, radical ideas, self-centered speeches, it seems to be increasingly relevant to understand, on the one hand, which historical knowledge can be built by the students within the school context and, on the other hand, in what way may the teacher profile, or not, impact the conceptions, that pragmatically relate the past, the present and the future, formulated by those students.

In particular, so that the transverse potentialities of historical learning are noted and discussed, but only when history is not only a synonym of substantive knowledge, banal nationalisms, transmissive roles for some and passive for others. Perhaps, since before Basic Education until the initial formation for teaching.