Looking for conceptual frameworks in history: the accounts of Portuguese 12–13 year-old pupils

Abstract

A great deal of research in history education has focused on students' ideas about the concepts and methodology of the discipline, which is seen as central to consistent development in historical thinking. Recently, studies of adolescents' conceptual frameworks have highlighted some concerns about the coherence and substance of pictures of the past – where concepts of a second order nature should be solidly embedded – constructed by students. Within the scope of the HiCon Project (Historical Consciousness – Theory and Practices II) the present paper explores Portuguese pupils' conceptual frameworks of peoples' movements and interactions over time. The participants were 47 pupils aged 12–13, attending year 7 in a Portuguese school. They were challenged to consider two accounts focusing on early movements of people around the globe or toward their country's territory, and to continue the narrative up to the present time. Data were analysed in a qualitative, inductive approach. Pupils' accounts suggest that most of their ideas are just present-centred or focus on a fragment of the past, and human movements and actions are often explained by everyday assumptions; a few pupils, however, gave a tentative, complete picture of the movements of people with diverse motives, strategies, and outcomes on a timeline or in an emergent narrative. Finally, the paper presents a brief discussion of the results and related history teaching issues.