Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T20:00:45.398Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

26 - Learning History

from Part V - Learning Disciplinary Knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

By
Mario Carretero  and
Everardo Perez-Manjarrez
Edited by
R. Keith Sawyer
R. Keith Sawyer
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Get access

Summary

History learning in schools often focuses on facts such as dates of important events and names of influential politicians or military leaders. This chapter instead considers history knowledge to be of two types: historical concepts and historical narratives. The chapter reviews two types of conceptual knowledge: first-order concepts like peasants and presidents, and second-order concepts like change and continuity, and cause and consequence. The chapter reviews many features of historical narratives, including the representation of national identity, the role of emotion in learning, the presence of mythical figures and motives, and the national or ethnic search for freedom or territory. A deeper understanding of history requires students to “think historically” – to engage in the professional practices of historians such as gathering evidence, developing theories, and translating the past into the present.

Keywords

historical conceptshistorical narrativesmisconceptionsconceptual developmentnarrative thought
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences , pp. 523 - 542
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alridge, D. P. (2006). The limits of master narratives in history textbooks: An analysis of representations of Martin Luther King, Jr. Teachers College Record, 108(4), 662–686.Google Scholar
Barton, K. C. (2008). Research on students’ ideas about history. In Levstik, L. S. & Thyson, C. A. (Ed.), Handbook of research in social studies education (pp. 239–258). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Barton, K. C., & Levstik, L. S. (2004). Teaching history for the common good. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Barton, K. C., & McCully, A. W. (2005). History, identity, and the school curriculum in Northern Ireland: An empirical study of secondary students’ ideas and perspectives. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37(1), 85–116.Google Scholar
Bermúdez, A. (2012). The discursive negotiation of narratives and identities in learning history. In Carretero, M., Asensio, M., & Rodríguez-Moneo, M. (Eds.), History education and the construction of national identities (pp. 203–220). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. London, England: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Brophy, J., VanSledright, B. A., & Bredin, N. (1992). Fifth graders’ ideas about history expressed before and after their introduction to the subject. Theory & Research in Social Education, 20(4), 440–489. doi:10.1080/00933104.1992.10505682Google Scholar
Cajani, L., Lässig, S., & Repoussi, M. (Eds.). (2019). The Palgrave handbook of conflict and history education in the post-cold war era. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.Google Scholar
Carretero, M. (2011). Constructing patriotism: Teaching history and memories in global worlds. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
Carretero, M. (2017). Teaching history master narratives: Fostering imaginations. In Carretero, M., Berger, S., & Grever, M. (Eds.), Palgrave handbook of research in historical culture and education (pp. 511–528). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Carretero, M. (2019). “Reconquest” – historical narrative or xenophobic view? Public History Weekly, 7, 7. doi:10.1515/phw-2019-13423Google Scholar
Carretero, M., Asensio, M., & Rodríguez-Moneo, M. (Eds.). (2012). History education and the construction of national identities. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., Berger, S., & Grever, M. (Eds.). (2017). Palgrave handbook of research in historical culture and education. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., & Bermúdez, A. (2012). Constructing histories. In Valsiner, J. (Ed.), Oxford handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 625–646). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., Cantabrana, M., & Parellada, C. (in press). History education in the digital age. Springer.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., Castorina, J. A., & Levinas, M. L. (2014). Conceptual change and historical narratives about the nation: A theoretical and empirical approach. In Vosniadou, S. (Ed.), International handbook of research in conceptual change (2nd ed., pp. 269–287). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., & González, M. F. (2008). “Aquí vemos a Colón llegando a América”: Desarrollo cognitivo e interpretación de imágenes históricas [“Here we see Columbus reaching America”: Cognitive development and interpretation of historical images]. Cultura y Educación, 20(2), 217–227.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., Jacott, L., & López-Manjon, A. (2002). Learning history through textbooks: Are Mexican and Spanish children taught the same story? Learning and Instruction, 12(6), 651–665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carretero, M., López, C., González, M. F., & Rodríguez-Moneo, M. (2013). Students historical narratives and concepts about the nation. In Carretero, M., Asensio, M., & Rodríguez-Moneo, M. (Eds.), History education and the construction of national identities (pp. 153–170). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., & Perez-Manjarrez, E. (2019). Historical narratives and the tensions among national identities, colonialism, and citizenship. In Thünemann, H., Zülsdorf-Kersting, M., & Köster, M. (Eds.), Researching history education: International perspectives and research traditions (2nd ed., 71–88). Schwalbach, Germany: Wochenschau Pub.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., & van Alphen, F. (2014). Do master narratives change among high school students? A characterization of how national history is represented. Cognition and Instruction, 32(3), 290–312. doi:10.1080/07370008.2014.919298CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carretero, M., & van Alphen, F. (2018). History, collective memories, or national memories? How the representation of the past is framed by master narratives. In Wagoner, B. (Ed.), Handbook of culture and memory (pp. 283–303). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., van Alphen, F., & Parellada, C. (2018). National identities in the making and alternative pathways of history education. In Rosa, A. & Valsiner, J. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of sociocultural psychology, (2nd ed., pp. 424–442). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Carretero, M., Wagoner, B., & Perez-Manjarrez, E. (Eds.). (in press). Historical reenactment: New ways of experiencing history. Oxford, England: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Freedman, E. B. (2015). “What happened needs to be told”: Fostering critical historical reasoning in the classroom. Cognition and Instruction, 33(4), 357–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freedman, E. B. (2020). When discussions sputter or take flight: Comparing productive disciplinary engagement in two history classes. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 29(3), 385–429. doi:10.1080/10508406.2020.1744442Google Scholar
González, M. F., & Carretero, M. (2013). Historical narratives and arguments in the context of identity conflicts. Estudios de Psicología, 34(1), 73–82.Google Scholar
Grever, M., & Stuurman, S. (2008). Beyond the canon: History for the 21st century. Basingstoke, England: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Grever, M., & Van der Vlies, T. (2017). Why national narratives are perpetuated: A literature review on new insights from history textbook research. London Review of Education, 15(2), 286–301.Google Scholar
Hammack, P. L. (2010). Identity as burden or benefit? Youth, historical narrative, and the legacy of political conflict. Human Development, 53, 173–201. doi: 10.1159/000320045Google Scholar
Haste, H., & Bermudez, A. (2017). The power of story: Historical narratives and the construction of civic identity. In Carretero, M., Berger, S., & Grever, M. (Eds.), Palgrave handbook of research in historical culture and education (pp. 427–447). London, England: Springer.Google Scholar
Iggers, G. (1993/2005). Historiography in the twentieth century: From scientific objectivity to the postmodern challenge (An expanded English version of: Geschichtswissenschaft im 20. Jahrhundert, c.1993). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Kadianaki, I., Andreouli, E., & Carretero, M. (2018). Using national history to construct the boundaries of citizenship: An analysis of Greek citizens’ discourse about immigrants’ rights. Qualitative Psychology, 5(1), 172–187. doi:10.1037/qup0000087Google Scholar
Koselleck, R. (2004). Futures past: On the semantics of historical time. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, P. J. (2005). Putting principles into practice: Understanding history. In Donovan, M. S. & Bransford, J. D. (Eds.), How students learn: History in the classroom (pp. 31–77). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Lee, P. J., & Shemilt, D. (2003). A scaffold, not a cage: Progression and progression models in history. Teaching History, 113, 13–23.Google Scholar
Lee, P. J., & Shemilt, D. (2009). Is any explanation better than none? Over-determined narratives, senseless agencies and one-way streets in students’ learning about cause and consequence in history. Teaching History, 137, 42–49.Google Scholar
Lévesque, S. (Ed.). (2008). Thinking historically: Educating students in the 21st century. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Lévesque, S., & Clark, A. (2018). Historical thinking: Definitions and educational applications. In Metzger, S. A. & Harris, L. M. A. (Eds.), The Wiley international handbook of history teaching and learning (pp. 117–148). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Limón, M., & Carretero, M. (1999). Conflicting data and conceptual change in History experts. In Schnotz, W., Vosniadou, S., & Carretero, M. (Eds.), New perspectives on conceptual change (pp. 137–160). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Pergamon/Elsevier.Google Scholar
Limón, M., & Carretero, M. (2000). Evidence evaluation and reasoning abilities in the domain of history: An empirical study. In Voss, J. F. & Carretero, M. (Eds.), Learning and reasoning in history (International Review of History Education, Vol. 2, pp. 252–271). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
López, C., Carretero, M., & Rodríguez-Moneo, M. (2014). Fostering national identity, hindering historical understanding. In Cabell, K. & Valsiner, J. (Eds.), The catalyzing mind (Annals of Theoretical Psychology, Vol. 11, pp. 211–221). New York, NY: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8821-7_11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López, C., & Márquez, M. (2021). Proud but ashamed: Narratives and moral emotions about the troubled national past in Spain. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 27(2), 200–215. doi:10.1080/13527258.2020.1781680CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowenthal, D. (2015). The past is a foreign country – revisited. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luckin, R., Bligh, B., Manches, A., Ainsworth, S., Crook, C., & Noss, R. (2012). Decoding learning: The proof, promise and potential of digital education. London, England: NESTA.Google Scholar
Luis, R., & Rapanta, C. (2020). Towards (re-) defining historical reasoning competence: A review of theoretical and empirical research. Educational Research Review, 31, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGrew, S., Breakstone, J., Ortega, T., Smith, M., & Wineburg, S. (2018). Can students evaluate online sources? Learning from assessments of civic online reasoning. Theory & Research in Social Education, 46(2), 165–193.Google Scholar
Metzger, S. A., & Harris, L. M. (Eds.). (2018). The Wiley international handbook of history teaching and learning. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Milligan, A., Gibson, L., & Peck, C. L. (2018). Enriching ethical judgments in history education. Theory & Research in Social Education, 46(3), 449–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monte-Santo, C., & Reisman, A. (2016). Studying historical understanding. In Corno, L. & Anderman, E. M. (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 295–308). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nokes, J. (2017). Historical reading and writing in secondary school classrooms. In Carretero, M., Berger, S., & Grever, M. (Eds.), Palgrave handbook of research in historical culture and education (pp. 553–571). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Nordgren, K. (2016). How to do things with history: Use of history as a link between historical consciousness and historical culture. Theory & Research in Social Education, 44(4), 479–504.Google Scholar
Parellada, C., Carretero, M., & Rodríguez-Moneo, M. (2020). Historical borders and maps as symbolic supporters of master narratives and history education. Theory & Psychology. Special Issue on Borders, 1–17.Google Scholar
Perez-Manjarrez, E., & Carretero, M. (2021). Historical maps as narratives: Anchoring the nation in history textbooks. In Berger, S., Brauch, N., & Lorenz, C. (Eds.), Analyzing historical narratives: On academic, popular and educational framings of the past (pp. 164–190). New York, NY: Berghahn Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perikleous, L., & Shemilt, D. (Eds.). (2011). The future of the past: Why history education matters. Nicosia, Cyprus: Association for Historical Dialogue and Research.Google Scholar
Reisman, A. (2015). Entering the historical problem space: Whole-class text-based discussion in history class. Teachers College Record, 117(2), 1–44.Google Scholar
Reisman, A., & McGrew, S. (2018). Reading in history education: Text, sources, and evidence. In Metzger, S. A. & Harris, L. M. A. (Eds.), The Wiley international handbook of history teaching and learning (pp. 527–550). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Retz, T. (2017). The structure of historical inquiry. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(6), 606–617.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, P. (1990). Time and narration. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Moneo, M., & López, C. (2017). Concept acquisition and conceptual change in history. In Carretero, M., Berger, S., & Grever, M. (Eds.), Palgrave handbook of research in historical culture and education (pp. 469–490). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-52908-4_25Google Scholar
Rüsen, J. (2005). History. New York, NY: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Seixas, P. (Ed.). (2004). Theorizing historical consciousness. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Seixas, P. (2017a). A model of historical thinking. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(6), 593–605.Google Scholar
Seixas, P. (2017b). Historical consciousness and historical thinking. In Carretero, M., Berger, S., & Grever, M. (Eds.), Palgrave handbook of research in historical culture and education (pp. 59–72). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Seixas, P., & Morton, T. (2013). The big six: Historical thinking concepts. Toronto, Canada: Nelson Education.Google Scholar
Shemilt, D. (1980). History 13–16 evaluation study. Edinburgh, Scotland: Holmes McDougall.Google Scholar
Shemilt, D. (1983). The devil’s locomotive. History and Theory, 22(4), 1–18.Google Scholar
Shemilt, D. (2011). ‘The gods of the copybook headings’: Why don’t we learn from the past? In Perikleous, L. & Shemilt, D. (Eds.), The future of the past: Why history education matters (pp. 69–128). Nicosia, Cyprus: AHDR.Google Scholar
Shemilt, D. (2018). Assessment of learning in history education: Past, present, and possible futures. In Metzger, S. A. & Harris, L. M. A. (Eds.), The Wiley international handbook of history teaching and learning (pp. 449–471). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/9781119100812.ch17Google Scholar
Straub, J. (2005). Narration, identity, and historical consciousness. New York, NY: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Thünemann, H., Köster, M., & Zülsdorf-Kersting, M. (Eds.). (2019). Researching history education: International perspectives and disciplinary traditions. (2nd ed.). Frankfurt, Germany: Wochenschau.Google Scholar
Van Alphen, F., & Carretero, M. (2015). The construction of the relation between national past and present in the appropriation of historical master narratives. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 49(3), 512–530.Google Scholar
Van Boxtel, C., & van Drie, J. (2017). Engaging students in historical reasoning: The need for dialogic history education. In Carretero, M., Berger, S., & Grever, M. (Eds.), Palgrave handbook of research in historical culture and education (pp. 573–589). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Van Boxtel, C., & van Drie, J. (2018). Historical reasoning: Conceptualizations and educational applications. In Metzger, S. A. & Harris, L. M. A (Eds.), The Wiley international handbook of history teaching and learning (pp. 149–176). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
VanSledright, B. (2008). Narratives of nation-state, historical knowledge and school history education. Review of Research in Education, 32(1), 109–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VanSledright, B., & Limón, M. (2006). Learning and teaching in social studies: Cognitive research on history and geography. In Alexander, P. & Winne, P. (Eds.), The handbook of educational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 545–570). Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Voss, J., Ciarrocchi, J., & Carretero, M. (1998). Causality in history: On the “intuitive” understanding of the concepts of sufficiency and necessity. In Voss, J. & Carretero, M. (Eds.), Learning and reasoning in history (International Review of History Education, Vol. 2, pp. 199–213). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wertsch, J. (2001). Specific narratives and schematic narrative templates. Paper presented at Canadian Historical Consciousness in an International Context: Theoretical Frameworks. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.Google Scholar
White, H. (1987). The content of the form: Narrative discourse and historical representation. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Wineburg, S. (1991a). Historical problem solving: A study of the cognitive processes used in the evaluation of documentary and pictoral evidence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(1), 73–87.Google Scholar
Wineburg, S. (1991b). The reading of historical texts: Notes on the breach between school and academy. American Educational Research Journal, 28(3), 495–519.Google Scholar
Wineburg, S. (2001). Historical thinking and other unnatural acts. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Wineburg, S. (2018). Why learn history (When it’s already on your phone). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wineburg, S., Martin, D., & Monte-Sano, C. (2011). Reading like a historian. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×