Abstract
It is a cliché, but also a fundamental fact that we live in a world where globalization and international challenges, opportunities and relationships play an increasing role. However, how have these changing conditions affected the content of school history? To what degree have curricula and textbooks addressed these challenges? Is the main focus in school history still on the history of the nation state, or has it successfully integrated topics and themes from world history? These are questions I discuss in this paper. In the main, my starting point is the situation in Denmark, but with perspectives and comparisons from Norway, England and Germany. Among other things, I will put school history in a historical context, because the subject’s history and genesis—in my opinion—tends to maintain a traditional content and form of organization, thereby reducing the subject’s usefulness. At the end of the paper, I outline and discuss a few alternative options for selecting and organizing the content with the aim of being more inclusive with regard to global and international aspects. The paper must be understood as a step towards the clarification of a development project that aims to propose and experiment with practices for the selection and organization of the content of the history curriculum, with the aim of increasing the international and global dimensions in history teaching.
Highlights
It is a cliché, and a fundamental fact that we live in a world where globalization and international challenges, opportunities and relationships play an increasing role
Instead of allowing growing internalization to be reflected in the content of history, the decision-makers tend to place their nation’s historical narrative at the center of their curricula; some even expect the subject to focus on preservation and to pass on an national heritage
To what extent is this the case? To what extent and in what manner are topics of world history integrated into teaching? Or is the nation state still used as the dominant criteria for the selection and organization of the teaching content? The last question about the role of the nation state is understood in two senses: The historical content is first of all the national history, for instance the history of Denmark, and the content is organized in the histories of nation states, i.e., politico-geographical areas
Summary
History is taught in a modest number of lessons in most European countries, while in some countries history is not taught separately but is integrated as an interdisciplinary subject. The political decision-makers in most European countries are eager to make teaching in most school subjects as effective as possible due to global competition It seems that history is an exception to the rule. A political majority in the Danish parliament demanded that the following sentence should be included in the first paragraph of the tripartite objective for the subject: “(history) teaching shall make the students familiar with Danish culture and history” [4] This requirement has a significant place in the curriculum, but without an explanation of what “Danish culture and history” means in this connection. Many people in Denmark—from decision-makers to parents and even some history teachers—support the first-mentioned concept of history and culture, the curriculum can contain the second concept In my opinion this concept is more appropriate in a globalized world. At the end of the paper, I outline and discuss some alternative options for selecting and organizing the content with the aim of being more inc1usive with regard to global and international aspects
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