Historical consciousness and historical education: What to expect from the first for the second

Theorizing Historical Consciousness

Volumn , Issue , 2004, Pages 165-182

  Laville, Christian ^a  

^a UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL   (Canada)

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EID: 84966990596     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (56)

1. In On History (New York: The New Press, 1997), 275.
2. On this topic, see jorn Riisen, 'The Didactics of History in West Germany,' History and Theory 24, no. 3 (1987): 275-86.
3. Donald Reid explains it this way: 'The goal of historical literacy is to develop students' skills to construct arguments based on partial and sometimes conflicting evidence of different kinds and to assess the arguments of others rather than succumb to relativism.' In 'Social History Goes to Class,' History and Theory 40 (October 2001): 397.
4. I have treated this subject in ‘A 1'assaut de la memoire collective: Discours et pratiques de 1'histoire scolaire au tournant du XXIe siecle,’ Traces 38, no. 4 (November-December 2000): 18-26.
5. Sirkka Ahonen on the recent use of'grand narrative' for the purpose of constructing social and political identity, in this case in Estonia, where it has been used in the traditional way, to nurture national consciousness: 'Politics of Identity through History Curriculum,' Journal of Curriculum Studies 33, no. 2 (2001): 179-94.
6. Les Cadres sotiaux de la memoire (Paris: Alcan, 1925; re-edited 1952 and 1994)
7. La Memoire collective (Paris: PUF, 1950; re-edited 1968).
8. 'Afterword' in Dan Ben-Amos and Liliane Weisbert, eds, Cultural Memory and the Construction of Identity (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999), 297.
9. In France, the historian Henry Rousso, writing about the contemporary period, has stated that 'scarcely twenty years ago, the word –memory— was almost never used by historians, and was never mentioned in course offerings or university textbooks. 'Reflexions sur 1'emergence de la notion de memoire,' in Marline Verlhac, ed., Histoireet memoire (Grenoble: CROP de 1'academie de Grenoble, 1998), 76.
10. This course has been offered in grade 12 since the beginning of the school year in the autumn of 2002. For another example of the important role that identity plays in the teaching of history nowadays, we could cite the summer school for the teaching of Canadian history sponsored by the Historica Foundation (Montreal, 16 July 2001), whose theme was 'Exploring Our Identities.
11. Le Probleme de la conscience historique (Louvain: Publications universitaires de Louvain, 1963). This lecture was first published in English only in 1975, in a New School for Social Research review; a French reprint, in an edition by Le Seuil, appeared only in 1996.
12. 'Memoire et conscience historique dans la France contemporaine,' in Verlhac, ed., Histoireet memoire, 90.
13. Memory Cast in Stone (Oxford: Berg, 1998), 1. 'In the mid-1980's,' the author writes, 'the issues of history and historical consciousness had gained a renewed importance in anthropological theorizing.' The connection with history-in-the-making was very apparent at that time. Thus, Berg writes, 'the worldwide growth of nationalism and other forms of identity politics in the late 1980's meant that an understanding of the uses and abuses of the past in service of present purposes was placed high on the agenda for anthropology' (P-2).
14. The 'reappearance,' one might say, in light of the publications of Halbwachs in the 1920s and again in the 1950s and of a few other works that failed to generate discussion. In 'On the Emergence of Memory in Historical Discourse, 'Kerwin Lee Klein agrees: Outside of experimental psychology and clinical psychoanalysis, few academics paid much attention to memory until the great swell of popular interest in autobiographical literature, family genealogy, and museums that marked the seventies.' In Representations 69 (Winter 2000): 127.
15. 'Entre histoire et memoire: Une histoire sociale de la memoire,' Raison presente 128 (1998): 10. In the same spirit, Michel Wieviorka writes, 'Until the sixties - religious texts and mythology aside - history enjoyed an almost total monopoly in public discussion of the past. Then memory appeared, with a new legitimacy and strength derived from the transmission of eyewitness accounts and actual experience.' In 'Retours de memoires,' l^e Monde des debats, November 2000: 10.
16. 'Memoire et conscience historique dans la France contemporaine'; both of them in Verlhac, ed., Histoire et memoire, 78ff. and 90.
17. In his analysis of interest in history and its function, Marc Angenot recently assessed the idea of progress: D'ou venons-nous? Ou allons-nous? La Decomposition de I'ideedeprogres (Montreal: Trait d'union, 1991).
18. David Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
19. Pierre Nora, ed., Les Lieux de memoire, 7 vols (Paris: Gallimard, 1993).
20. An abridged English version exists as well: Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past, 3 vols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).
21. These reforms in Great Britain, France, and the United States were mentioned earlier in passing. A number of other countries - and many Canadian provinces, notably Quebec - have already instituted similar changes or are in the process of doing so.
22. 'Retours de memoires,' 10.
23. A discussion of the principle of the redeeming quality of history-as-memory can be found in [ohn Torpey, '–Making Whole What Has Been Smashed—: Reflections on Reparations,' Journal of Modern History 73 (June 2001): 333-58.
24. 'Retours de memoires,' 10.
25. 'Towards the Coach in the History Classroom,' Canadian Issues/Themes Canadiens, October-November 2001: 12. Gaffield also notes that 'more and more professors recognize that changes since the 1960's have undermined the view of students as containers awaiting content and of history as a Truth to be revealed' (14).
26. 'Afterword,' in Ben-Amos and Weisberg, eds, Cultural Memory and the Construction of Identity, 297.
27. 'Memoire et conscience historique,' 76.
28. 'Some Random Thoughts on History's Recent Past,' History and Memory 12, no. 2 (2001): 49.
29. In the article 'Memoire collective,' (L'Encyclopedie de) La Nouvelle histoire (Paris: Retz-CEPL, 1978), 399.
30. In collaboration with Linda Rosenzweig, we have considered some of these in 'Teaching and Learning History: Developmental Dimensions,' chapter 5 of Developmental Perspectives on the Social Studies (Washington: National Council for the Social Studies, 1982), 54-66.
31. L'Histoire a Vecole, matiere a penser (Montreal: L'Harmattan, 1999).
32. We should also mention that, in the eighties, a behaviourist trend appeared that tended to accent the goals of education while neglecting the contents. This also irritated teachers.
33. Peter Lee and Rosalyn Ashby, 'Progression in Historical Understanding among Students Ages 7-14,' in Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg, eds, Knounng, Teaching, and Learning History (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 199-222.
34. James F. Voss and Mario Carretero, eds (London: Woburn Press, 1998).
35. 'La Recherche empirique en education historique: Mise en perspective et orientations actuelles,' Perspectives documentaires en education 53 (2001): 69-82. One might also look at Bronwen Swinnerton and Isobel Jenkins, Secondary School History Teaching in England and Wales: A Review of Empirical Research, 1960-1998 (Centre for Studies in Sciences and Mathematics Education: University of Leeds, 1999).
36. Gabriele Bucher Dine, ed., Looking Back-Looking Forward: Understanding History in Europe (Hamburg: Korber-Stiftung, 2000), 115-76
37. 'Teaching of History, National Identity, and Historical Consciousness.'
38. Sharon Macdonald, ed., Approaches to European Historical Consciousness: Reflexions and Provocations (Hamburg: Korber-Stiftung, 2000).
39. Magne Angvik and Bodo von Borries, eds, Youth and History: A Comparative European Survey on Historical Consciousness and Political Attitudes among Adolescents (Hamburg: Korber-Stiftung, 1997). Vol. A: Description; vol. B: Documentation; a database on CD-ROM is included.
40. Katia Fausser writes, The English term –European Historical Consciousness— serves as an approximation of the German –Geschichtsbewusstsein.—'
41. 'Historical Consciousness: Dimensions of a Complex Concept,' in Macdonald, ed., Approaches to European Historical Consciousness, 43.
42. Macdonald, Approaches, 7-8
43. 'The Didactics of History in West Germany,' History and Theory 24, no. 3 (1987): 275-86.
44. MacDonald, Approaches, 75-85.1 would like to thank Jean-Pierre Charland for bringing the title of this work to my attention.
45. John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994).
46. 'Commemorations: Les enjeux d'une pratique sociale,' Raisonpresente 128 (1998): 25.
47. '–Cultural Currency—: The Nature of Historical Consciousness in Europe,' in Macdonald, ed., Approaches toEuropean Historical Consciousness, 78.
48. Verlhac, ed., Histoire et memoire, 21.
49. Alain Gresh, 'Inventer une memoire commune,' Le Monde diplomatique - Maniere de voir5tt (July-August 2001): 97.
50. 'Une Nouvelle perspective pour 1'histoire du Quebec,' Spirale, May-June 2001:27.
51. 'L'Avenir du Canada: Par rapport a quelle histoire?' Canadian Historical Review 51, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 230.
52. Who Killed Canadian History (Toronto: HarperCollins, 1998)
53. 'Teaching Ignorance: History in the Schools.' Among many other critical pieces written in the same spirit, but with more technical expertise, one could cite Bob Davis, Whatever Happened to High School History? (Toronto: James Lorirner, 1995).
54. 'Mistakes of the Past,' Globe and Mail, 18 September 2000: Al 3.
55. We are thinking, for example, of the major conferences on the teaching of Canadian history organized recently by the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and by the Association for Canadian Studies, and of the efforts of the Historica Foundation, the Dominion Institute, Canada's National History Society, the CRB Foundation, and of Radio Canada with its Canada: A People's History, It is troubling to note, in passing, that several of these projects were supported - at a cost of millions of dollars - not by educators or even by politicians, though some of them are involved, but by businessmen. Europe has experienced the same phenomenon. For instance, the Korber-Stiftung, which supports the publications in the Eustory Series and other similar projects, is the offspring of the Korber Corporation, a large German mechanical engineering firm. Moreover, the first really school-like textbook on the history of Europe, a collaboration by twelve European historians, was the brainchild of another businessman, Frederic Delouche (published by Hachette in France and by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in England, in 1992 and 1994, respectively). Such interest in history education on the part of the business world might invite us to overlook Henry Ford's unfortunate pronouncement, 'History is bunk,' but should in no way allow us to forget Eric Hobsbawm's warning against the possible misuses of history, with which we began this chapter.
56. '[E]verybody has to go to a school of intellectual self-defense in order not to be manipulated by texts.' In 'The Past, History, and Education,' Journal of Curriculum Studies, no. 6 (2001): 750.