This article explores an underlying tension between two understandings of historical consciousness. On one hand, the concept is often perceived as a specific ability to historicize the world and thus appears as a modern cultural achievement. On the other hand, it is also conceptualized as an anthropological universal as the ability to make sense…

Although most teachers adapt curriculum, we know little about teachers' rationales for modifying materials, how these rationales align with actual modifications, nor whether any patterns exist in the modifications that teachers make. This is especially the case in history/social studies, where research on curriculum is scant and research on…

This research explored the extent to which secondary school history teachers in England willingly engaged with a series of concurrent curriculum reforms, and the factors that shaped their level of agency in the process. The curriculum has been the target of sustained reform by many governments, and accountability measures are frequently used to…

A teacher describes how a team of educators from two elementary schools in Massachusetts used the Next Generation Science Standards to create a social history curriculum focused on depth--and story--instead of isolated facts.

Inspired by the work of the social and cultural historian Tim Cole, Stuart Farley decided to look again at the way he teaches the Holocaust. He wanted to focus on the geographical concept of place as a way of enabling his Year 9 students to build far more diverse narratives, which took full account of the chronological diversity of people's…

It is almost 20 years since Michael Riley first invited Key Stage 3 history teachers to 'choose and plant' their enquiry questions. Many members of the history education community have taken up that invitation, making use of overarching enquiry questions to structure students' learning. But what is meant by enquiry in this context is sometimes…

History curriculum in Australia has moved beyond its traditional British imperial roots and currently takes a world history approach. Postmodern and postcolonial approaches have challenged the dominant Western metanarrative projected on and by curriculum and the inclusion of Asia-related histories has contributed to the diversification of the…

This article discusses authentic inquiry-based learning in a hybrid graduate course, "Teaching Hidden History," taught in 2015 and 2016. Students in this course created online history learning modules based on their own scholarly research. They defined their intended audience and crafted modules tailored specifically for those learners.…

Purpose: The current article on social studies in primary and secondary education in Norway covers a range of relevant topics which starts with a brief context of Norwegian society, history and social studies framework. Main topics are the new (2020) curriculum, textbooks analyses, social studies teacher competence and practices followed by…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways that history curriculum has worked to legitimise dispossession through narratives that elide questions of Indigenous sovereignty, and which construct and consolidate white settler identity and possession. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses two case studies to compare history…

In societies that have failed to confront past injustice, the most common justifications for the inclusion of history education within the school curriculum invoke the idea that those who cannot learn from the past are doomed to repeat it; or they appeal to goals such as reconciliation, or to the importance of recognizing and morally redressing…

Pedagogical Content Knowledge exists in some capacity in every teacher. It is more well-developed as the wisdom in practice informs it. In their capacity as curriculum gatekeepers, teachers enact their PCK as they decide which content to teach. But what knowledge is of most worth? How do teachers employ the structures unique to their disciplines…

This study examines the movement to integrate LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) history into high school US history courses. Using such primary sources as government documents, classroom resources, and organizational agendas, and oral history interviews with teachers, gay rights activists, and scholars, the study probes grassroots…

Globally, pedagogical reform policy seeks to give space to learners' voices. But teachers often struggle to engage learners in knowledge construction, deconstruction and reconstruction; as advocated by official curriculum reform policy. Aligning classroom practice to pedagogical-reform policy remains an uphill struggle for most teachers. This…

This paper invites the reader to investigate the importance of developing an understanding of the 'Big Picture' that puts specific events or periods within an historical context. It argues for the importance of developing wider historical perspectives for children to begin to make relevant connections, locally nationally and globally. It is only…