Critical History: Adapting history education to the challenges of today’s digitized, globalized, and diverse societies in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Critical History: Adapting history education to the challenges of today’s digitized, globalized, and diverse societies in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Recent years have seen profound societal changes across Europe. The rise of the internet has given students and teachers easier access to information, fundamentally altering the way in which we learn about both current and past events. At the same time, disinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories increasingly find their way into classrooms. Remedying this trend requires a solid judgment on the reliability of sources, for which students often lack the necessary training. With critique, interpretation and contextualisation of sources forming the basis of the discipline’s methodology, history and history educators can play a key role in providing students with the right knowledge and skill sets to counter this worrying trend.

The frequent use of history in the public sphere, including in films, games and fiction that youngsters consume similarly provide educators with both opportunities and challenges. While students may arrive at school with preconceived ideas about history that have little root in historical research, there are also opportunities to engage them in topics they care about. Teachers must therefore be up to the task of recognising biases and challenging assumptions, while encouraging their students to critically reflect on what they see, read and hear.

New and innovative ways of teaching and learning about the past are also not limited to the internet and the media most frequently consumed by youth. Current discussions on heritage in particular, and what we as a society choose to remember, cherish or commemorate, does not only help students learn about the past, it also forces them to think about the present and the kind of society we wish to live in.
European classrooms have over time become increasingly diverse. Still, most history curricula remain centred on traditional, nation-centric narratives that are neither equipped for, nor reflective of, this new diversity present across our continent.

This project therefore aims to prepare future history teachers for a critical history education more attuned to the realities of 21st century societies. In order to respond to the aforementioned societal changes and to incorporate these new insights in history didactics, history teachers need to have access to information that is based on the latest research, that is easy to digest and that can make immediate impact in hectic work environments.

Future history teachers are the main target audience of this project. These are students currently enrolled in the partner universities’ teacher programmes in Estonia, Germany, Poland and Spain, as well as those reached by EuroClio’s network of both current and aspiring history educators. The project will additionally target more experienced teachers, who will benefit from updating their teaching practice, as well as researchers benefitting from a State of the Field analysis. Ultimately, the project will benefit pupils across Europe who will receive an updated, critical history education responding to 21st century needs.

The project will provide future teachers with a ready to use study guide with learning activities and teaching methods and tools on the following topics: Heritage in history education, global dimensions of national history and post-colonial history, public history and history education, and the role and influence of the internet in history education.

A State of the Field analysis will ensure that all developed materials are based on the latest scientific insights and current teaching practices. The accompanying literature review will be a reference point for those interested in evidence-based history teaching, including researchers and history didacticians.
A visibility campaign will focus on the production of content designed to raise awareness and increase the number of prospective history teachers, teacher trainers, educators, and policymakers using the study guide and State of the Field analysis. The campaign will thus significantly improve the impact of all other project outputs, as will the planned national and thematic seminars.

The project’s methodology rests on solid and extensive experience of EU projects by the lead coordinator and a collaborative approach with both internal and external partners. The individual expertise of the different partner organizations are recognised and each Intellectual Output will be developed under one organization’s leadership. The involvement of the partners in all outputs will additionally result in a strengthened awareness of roles and responsibilities in the project’s management leading to a task division compatible to each organization’s capacity.

In terms of impact, the project partners have the potential to reach approximately 10,000 prospective and current history teachers. The longer term benefits of the project will have much further repercussions, providing future generations with the critical thinking skills required for active citizenship in democratic and pluralistic societies.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 262958 Eur

Project Coordinator

TALLINN UNIVERSITY & Country: EE

Project Partners

• EUROCLIO-DE EUROPESE VERENIGING VOOR GESCHIEDENISONDERWIJSGEVENDEN
• UNIVERSITAET AUGSBURG
• UNIWERSYTET WROCLAWSKI
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA