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This article presents an analysis of seven Swedish lower secondary school teachers’ personal experiences of the Cold War period, told in life story interviews which also related to their profession as history teachers. The aim is to analyze how personal experiences of history and personal memories may affect how history is approached by teachers and to discuss what relevance that may have for history education. Applying theories of historical culture and collective memory, we argue that the interviewed teachers display a collectivized historical experience imbued with cultural contingency, both entangled with – and at the same time detached from– personal memory. The reproduction of historical culture and collective memory seems detached from personal experience and instead, related to cultural narratives. The study finds that the teachers’ personal experiences are strongly affected by and filtered through the culturally contingent narratives of the historical period in which the teachers have lived their lives. Furthermore, the interviewed teachers did not address the reconstructive and disciplinary aspects of history that may arguably be an essential aspect of history education in Sweden and most Western countries.

I den här artikeln analyseras sju svenska högstadielärares personliga upplevelser från kalla kriget, berättade i livsberättelse-intervjuer som också relaterade till deras yrke som lärare. Livsberättelse-intervjuerna skapade förutsättningar för en analys av hur lärarnas personliga erfarenheter av historia och deras personliga minnen kan påverka hur de närmar sig historien, vilket också öppnar för en diskussion om vilken relevans deras minnen har för deras historieundervisning. Genom en analys med historiekultur och kollektivt minne som teoretiska verktyg, menar vi att de intervjuade lärarna uppvisade tecken på en kollektiviserad historisk erfarenhet genomsyrad av kulturell kontingens sammanlänkad med – och samtidigt avskild från – personliga minnen. Reproduktionen av historiekulturen och ett kollektivt minne förefaller ha varit avskild från personliga erfarenheter och istället relaterad till kollektiva berättelser. Studien visar även att lärarnas personliga erfarenheter och minnen är starkt påverkade av, och filtrerade genom, de kulturellt betingade berättelser som beskriver den period då lärarna har levt. I intervjuerna saknades emellertid tecken på en insikt i hur lärarnas minnen påverkats av kulturellt betingade berättelser om kalla kriget. Lärarna utelämnar även diskussioner om de rekonstruktiva och disciplinära aspekterna av historia, som kan sägas vara en viktig del av historieundervisning i Sverige och i större delen av västvärlden

This compilation thesis contains an introductory chapter and four original articles. The studies comprising this thesis all concern aspects of how historical culture is constituted in historical media and history teachers’ narratives and teaching. It is argued that the teaching of history is a complex matter due to an internal tension resulting from the fact that history is both a product and a process at the same time. While historical facts, and knowledge thereof, are an important aspect of history, history is also a product of careful interpretation and reconstruction. This study analyses and discusses how history is constituted in history textbooks and popular history magazines, i.e. two common historical media, and in teachers’ narratives and teaching of history.

The study finds that the historical media studied generally tend to present history as void of perspective, interpretation and representation, suggesting this to be the culturally warranted form of historical exposition. Moreover, the teachers studied also tend to approach history as if it were not contingent on interpretation and reconstruction. These results indicate that the history disseminated in historical media and history classrooms presents history in a factual way and disregards the procedural aspects of history.

Applying the history didactical concepts of historical consciousness, historical culture and uses of history, this thesis argues that an essential aspect of historical understanding is an appreciation of the contextual contingency that characterises history. All history is conceived within a particular context that is pertinent to why and how a certain version of history is constructed. Furthermore, all history is also received within a particular context by people with particular preconceptions of history that are contextually contingent, in the sense that they are situated in a certain historical culture. Readers of historical media are members of societies and are thus affected by how history is perceived and discussed in these contexts. This thesis argues that an awareness of these aspects of history is an important factor for furthering a complex understanding of history that encompasses the tension highlighted above.

This paper argues that popular history magazines may be a welcome complement in history teaching. By outlining a theoretical framework of uses of history, the paper analyses popular history magazine articles from five European countries all dealing with the outbreak of World War I. The study finds that while the studied articles provide a rather heteregoneous view of the causes of the Great War, they can be used to discuss and analyse the importance of perspective in history, thus offering an opportunity to further a more disciplinary historical understanding.

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.

This paper presents a theoretical approach to analysing educational media using the concept of historical consciousness. The concept of historical consciousness is defined and operationalised and its relevance for analysis of historical media discussed. One aspect of the theoretical framework proposed is then applied in an analysis of a history textbook account. The analysis finds that while the framework may be applied in analysis of textbooks, its results regarding historical consciousness are tentative and in need of further investigation from the perspective of how its users perceive and appropriate the textbook account. Still, it is argued that the framework proposed may be useful since it specifies how a historical consciousness may be manifested and what methodological approaches that can be used when analysing it.

This thesis by publication contains an introductory summary chapter and three papers. The first paper presents a study of how the concept of historical consciousness has been defined, applied, and justified in Swedish history didactical research. It finds that there is consensus regarding the definition of what a historical consciousness is, but that there is variation in how the concept is applied. It is suggested that this variation makes historical con­sciousness a complex and vague concept.

     The second paper uses the results presented in the first paper as a point of departure and from thence argues for a broadened understanding of the concept of historical consciousness that incorporates its definition, applica­tion, development, and significance. The study includes research about his­torical consciousness primarily from Sweden, the UK, the USA and Canada. The paper presents a typology of historical consciousness and argues that level of contextualisation is what distinguishes different types of historical consciousnesses and that an ability to contextualise is also what makes his­torical consciousness an important concept for identity constitution and morality.

     The third paper proposes a methodological framework of historical con­sciousness based on the theory of historical consciosusness presented in the second paper. It presents arguments for why the framework of historical consciousness proposed can be useful for the analysis of historical media and it discusses how aspects of the framework can be applied in analysis. It then presents a textbook analysis that has been performed according to the stipulated framework and discusses its results regarding how textbooks can be used to analyse historical consciousness and its development.

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the concept of historical consciousness. It argues that a focus on the epistemological problems of the concept can be a way of constructing a theory of the concept that both incorporates the diverse perspectives that exist in research about the concept and specifies how a historical consciousness can be developed in an individual.