Historical and Moral Consciousness in Education

"In many countries, teachers struggle with polarized debates in their classrooms about moral issues related to present interpretations of the past, about what was right and wrong then and now. This book provides a fascinating and much-needed theoretical and empirical study of how historical consciousness and moral consciousness are intersected. Focusing on third-order concepts that stimulate self-reflection on personal values and emotions, the authors offer new theoretical tools for research on history teaching and citizenship education. Historical and Moral Consciousness in Education is well written and cogently argued."

Maria Grever, em. professor Theory of Historical Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

"A great and fascinating contribution. This is what the fields of history education and civic education really need. New and suggesting ideas about and how representations about the past and the problems of the present are connected."

Mario Carretero, is Professor in psychology at Autonoma University of Madrid

"Historical and Moral Consciousness in Education makes an important and welcome contribution to studies in historical consciousness and democratic education. The authors reject the perceived separation between historical consciousness and moral consciousness, arguing instead that learning about the past is an inescapably moral endeavor. Drawing on empirical studies with students in Australia, Finland, and Sweden, the book explores how our understanding of what went on in other times and places shapes our moral identity in the present, and our sense of responsibility to both the past and future. This book will be of interest to scholars of historical consciousness, history teachers, and teacher educators alike."

Ann Chinnery is a professor in the Education department at Simon Fraser University

"At a time when polarized societies struggle with issues of right and wrong, good and evil, and desirable and undesirable, this timely book provides a roadmap for using history and civics instruction to enrich students’ engagement with issues of morality. The authors explore the complex and abstract theories associated with historical consciousness and moral consciousness within the concrete settings of classrooms in international contexts. They investigate how history and civics education might nurture in young people a commitment to human rights, preparing them for morally-responsible citizenship. Researchers and educators will find this work an indispensable contribution in defining and exploring the intersections between historical consciousness and moral consciousness, topics that are gaining importance in a morally-disoriented world."

Jeffery D Nokes is a professor in the History Department at Brigham Young University.

Human life is diverse both within and across times. Fostering young students' abilities to really partake in social life characterized by this multi-dimensional diversity, therefore, requires to not only endow them with a historical knowledge and moral principles separately, but to enable them to actively, independently and critically develop their own abilities to perceive and reflect on and to rationally (inter)act at the intersections of these two dimensions of human life. Drawing on the concept of "historical consciousness" for the spectrum of making sense of time and exploring different theories for conceptualising a counterpart of 'moral consciousness', this book both reports on empirical findings in studies from different countries on students' conceptualisations and argumentations, theoretically develops a set of insights and concepts by which the intersecting of the two dimensions can and should be further explored, and draws a set of highly recommendable conclusions for integrating this dimension of young students' personal development in school curricula.

Andreas Körber, professor in history education, University of Hamburg, Germany