The History that is known and the one that will be taught: representations of school history and national identity in teacher training

Abstract

The school history tends to follow the classic nationalizing master narratives, which still predominate in school contexts. It is the traditional history, the one considered true, that continues to face the emergence of alternative readings of the past, driven by historiographical renewals and new approaches.

The social representations of pre-service teachers regarding the historical discipline and the issue of identity reveal the persistence of outdated models that we refer to, which are linked to the traditional view of the historical discipline. We seek to address this issue using Grounded Theory, as it allows us to visualize the mechanisms behind the vision, interpretation, and teaching-learning process of the historical discipline. Grounded Theory has enabled us to detect other underlying realities in the thinking of pre-service teachers, such as conceptions, resistances, emotions, and identity fears that act as true obstacles when it comes to learning and teaching a different school history.