MakingHistories is a project that aims to promote an interdisciplinary and dialogical understanding of the production of knowledge relating to historical culture and education, particularly in the increasingly significant context of globalisation.
A total of 18 institutions from Europe, Australia, Canada, Korea, Israel and Latin America participate in the MakingHistories project. The project focuses especially on the presence of gender and on the importance placed on the challenges of globalisation. The project team will produce research articles, books and a digital professional development course, generating a dialogical vision within history teaching.
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Aims
The central aim of this project is to create an international and interdisciplinary network of institutions in order to produce new knowledge that will enhance the role of historical representations in today’s democratic and reflective societies.
The project addresses the following topics:
Master historical narratives
Every country has its master narratives which serve to make sense of the past, present and future of a cultural community. The project examines whether comparisons can be made between the founding national histories of different countries and whether there are counternarratives.
Representation of colonisation
The project explores how colonisation is depicted in history teaching, in the media and in the cultures of different countries. Are there differences between the depictions in countries that are former colonies and those that were colonisers? How do current migratory movements correspond to this history? What impact do such representations have on national identity, on the understanding of history and on the development of students’ identities?
Dictatorships in the twentieth century
Every country’s past experiences influence the nuance and depth with which its citizens comprehend the historiography of other regimes. Can the experiences of countries such as Italy and Germany, who endured fascist and national-socialist dictatorships, be compared to Latin American dictatorships such as those in Argentina or Chile, or to the communist regimes of Estonia and East Germany?
Recent political conflicts around history
Representations of history do not only affect the past: they influence the present and the future, especially in societies that are still suffering political divisions related to their troubled histories. How should we address the cases of Israel or Cyprus, countries that are still going through political conflicts and experiencing internal divisions?
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Methodology
The guiding research questions are:
- How can history education address the multitude of narratives regarding the past in the polarised and pluralistic societies of today?
- How can dialogical history teaching be promoted in formal and informal contexts?
- How can dialogical activities generate a new type of history teaching?
- How can international and interdisciplinary comparisons contribute to this goal?
The collaborative work on these guiding research questions is conducted in the following working groups:
Arbeitsgruppen
- General Project Management
Coordinators: M. Carretero and M. Asensio of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. - Historical culture and historical thinking
Integrating innovative theories and practices into historical culture and history and heritage education
Coordinators: B. Wagoner of Aalborg University and B. Christophe of Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute. - Historical museums and re-enactments
Ways of making history for citizenship
Coordinator: I. Momoitio of Fundación Museo de la Paz Gernika. - Troubled pasts
The representation of troubled pasts in present-day societies: can history “bite”?
Coordinators: E. Pérez-Manjárrez of Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia and C. Psaltis of Cyprus University. - Formal and informal teaching
Interaction among formal and informal history education practices
Coordinators: K. Van Nieuwenhuyse of KU Leuven and L. Loukaidis of the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research - Professional Development Course
Coordinators: M. Rodríguez-Moneo of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and E. Pol of InterpretART. - Dissemination, communication and exploitation
Coordinators: A. Bermúdez of Universidad de Deusto and R. Spielhaus of Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute.
Projektpartner
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid – Aalborg University – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven – Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia – University of Cyprus – Sapienza University of Rome – Tallinn University – Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute – University of Deusto – Association for Historical Dialogue and Research – Museo de la Paz de Guernika – Kibbutzim College of Education – Interpretart – Vlaamse Vereniging voor Leraren Geschiedenis – University of Newcastle – Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales – The University of British Columbia – The Korean History Education Society
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Results
