International Perspectives on Teaching Rival Histories

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. Introduction: Epistemology of Rival Histories

   • Henrik Åström Elmersjö, Anna Clark, Monika Vinterek

   Pages 1-14

3. Historical Cultures and National Histories

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

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   2. An Early Attempt to Approach Rival Histories: Epistemological Impediments to Transnational History Teaching—A Scandinavian Example

      • Henrik Åström Elmersjö

      Pages 17-39

   3. The Lure of Grand Narratives: A Dilemma for History Teachers

      • Sirkka Ahonen

      Pages 41-62

   4. Bridging History Education and the Diversity of Historical Cultures

      • Arja Virta

      Pages 63-83

4. Official Histories in Multicultural Societies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 85-85

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   2. Text and Contexts: Pedagogical Practices for a History Textbook Lesson on the 1947 British India Partition

      • Meenakshi Chhabra

      Pages 87-106

   3. Teaching History for Narrative Space and Vitality: Historical Consciousness, Templates, and English-Speaking Quebec

      • Paul Zanazanian

      Pages 107-131

   4. Mediating Collective Memories and Official Histories in Conflict-Affected Societies: Pedagogical Responses to “Individual” Narratives and Competing Collective Memories

      • Zvi Bekerman, Michalinos Zembylas

      Pages 133-153

5. Critical Thinking and Multiperspectivity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155

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   2. How to Make School History More Controversial? Controversies in History Education in Poland

      • Joanna Wojdon

      Pages 157-179

   3. Teaching About the First World War in England: Exploring Controversy and Competing Historical Interpretations

      • Stuart Foster

      Pages 181-205

   4. Promoting a Historiographic Gaze through Multiperspectivity in History Teaching

      • Thomas Nygren, Monika Vinterek, Robert Thorp, Margaret Taylor

      Pages 207-228

   5. After the Ideological Battles: Student Views on Sources Representing the Gallipoli Conflict

      • Heather Sharp

      Pages 229-250

6. Epilogue

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 251-251

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   2. Teaching Rival Histories: In Search of Narrative Plausibility

      • Peter Seixas

      Pages 253-268

7. Back Matter

   Pages 269-292

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This book presents a survey of approaches to dealing with ‘rival histories’ in the classroom, arguing that approaching this problem requires great sensitivity to differing national, educational and narrative contexts. Contested narratives and disputed histories have long been an important issue in history-teaching all over the world, and have even been described as the ‘history’ or ‘culture’ wars. In this book, authors from across the globe ponder the question “what can teachers do (and what are they doing) to address conflicting narratives of the same past?”, and puts an epistemological issue at the heart of the discussion: what does it mean for the epistemology of history, if it is possible to teach more than one narrative? 


Divided into three sections that deal with historical cultures, multicultural societies and multiperspectivity, the chapters of the book showcase that dealing with rival histories is very much dependent on context, and that diverse teaching traditions and societal debates mean that teachers’ abilities in engaging with the teaching of rival narratives are very different. The volume will be compelling reading for students and researchers in the fields of education, history, sociology and philosophy, as well as practising teachers.




             

• diversity
• history teaching
• culture
• multicultural
• sociology of education

• Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

  Henrik Åström Elmersjö

• University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

  Anna Clark

• Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden

  Monika Vinterek

Henrik Åström Elmersjö is a researcher in history and education at Umeå University, Sweden. He has published extensively on negotiations of historical cultures and the history of Scandinavian history education. He is also on the editorial team for the Nordic Journal of Educational History.


Anna Clark holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship and is Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. She has written extensively on history education, historiography and historical consciousness, including her most recent book, Private Lives/Public History. 


Monika Vinterek is professor at at Dalarna University, Sweden, where she is also Director of Education and Learning. She has participated in several international projects, including European History Crossroads as Pathways to Intercultural and Media Education, Popular History Magazines and History Textbooks, Teaching Aids from a User Perspective and Comparing Our Pasts.






           

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