Representation and interpretation: Textbooks, teachers, and historical culture

Autores

  • Robert Thorp Dalarna University and Umeå University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21344/iartem.v7i2.747

Palavras-chave:

texbooks, narrative, history didactics, interpretation, reception, uses of history

Resumo

This article presents a study of how contemporary Swedish lower secondary school textbooks present the emergence of the Cold War and how 10 active lower secondary school history teachers interpreted a quotation that was ambiguous in relation to the general narrative in the studied Swedish textbooks, seeking to analyse textbooks both from the perspectives of content and reception. Applying a theoretical framework of uses of history, the study finds that the narratives presented in the studied textbooks are what could be called traditional in the sense that they do not acknowledge perspective and representation in history. While the interviewed teachers generally acknowledged that textbook narratives are representations of history and contingent on perspective, few teachers extended this to include how their own views affect their interpretations, suggesting an intermediary appreciation of the contextual contingency of historical narratives.

Biografia do Autor

  • Robert Thorp, Dalarna University and Umeå University

    Robert Thorp is a PhD candidate at Dalarna University and Umeå University. He is a fellow researcher at the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig, Germany, where he participates in the international research project Teaching the Cold War: Memory practices in the classroom.
    Robert Thorp is also a principal researcher in the international Comparing our pasts project headed by the HERMES research network, which is concentrated at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He has previously published Historical consciousness, historical media, and history education.
    He can be contacted at : [email protected]

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Publicado

2015-09-09

Edição

Secção

Peer-reviewed research articles

Como Citar

Thorp, R. (2015). Representation and interpretation: Textbooks, teachers, and historical culture. IARTEM E-Journal, 7(2), 73-99. https://doi.org/10.21344/iartem.v7i2.747