The perduration of master narratives: The ‘discovery’, conquest and colonization of America in the Spanish history textbooks (original) (raw)
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This study analyses the role of Spanish teacher training students as narrators of what they consider to be the history of Spain. Results of an this empirical study are based on a random sample of 103 narratives produced by trainee primary education teachers (20-22 years of age) studying at the University of Murcia. We are interested in understanding the role of students as agents of historical knowledge. Recent research in history education has stressed the need to vindicate the active role of students in the creation of historical narratives. How do students construct their accounts of history? How do they reflect narratives of school-taught history? Their narratives always reveal certain forms and skills employed to represent the past. This study focuses on this perspective. We have analysed their extra-curricular knowledge (family, social environments, mass media and other cultural products such as TV series, videogames, websites, etc.) and their memories of school history (curriculum, textbooks, teachers) using a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology. Our qualitative methodology is based on grounded theory and, in order to analyse discourse, we have used quantitative methodology with the analysis of key events and historical figures present in the narrative, in an attempt to categorise second order concepts and sources of historical knowledge. In the results, essentialist and traditional representations of this historical knowledge can be appreciated. Reported major events are related to a traditional political reading of history and linked to genesis and nation-building events: showing heroes and antiheroes of a national narrative. Regarding the sources of knowledge, teachers' explanations, textbooks and museums are the factors most valued by students.
Este artículo aborda las visiones de la identidad nacional española y los modelos de narrativa nacional que asumen estudiantes de secundaria y docentes de historia en formación. Se examina en qué medida los modelos de los participantes corresponden a una representación social o narrativa maestra, o bien a una narrativa que entiende las identidades nacionales y las naciones como construcciones sociales. Se analiza la influencia de la educación histórica y de dimensiones de socialización extraescolares (medios) en la construcción de estos modelos. Se trata de un estudio cualitativo de corte fenomenológico basado en cuestionarios abiertos y producción de textos históricos sobre muestras de estudiantes y docentes en formación. El estudio se realiza en dos fases diferenciadas: una primera para explorar la representación subjetiva de la identidad nacional analizando diferencias por edad; y una segunda etapa que profundiza los discursos del profesorado en formación sobre la historia de España para indagar qué elementos que predominan en sus relatos. La metodología cualitativa se enmarca en la teoría fundamentada, empleando análisis del discurso. Los resultados muestran el predominio de representaciones esencialistas de la identidad nacional y el peso de una narrativa maestra. No se han encontrado diferencias significativas relacionadas con la edad ni con el nivel de formación histórica. El modelo predominante refleja similitudes con los de las series de televisión de contenido histórico. Palabras clave: Educación histórica, narrativa nacional, identidad nacional, formación de profesorado, Educación Primaria, Educación Secundaria. Abstract This article deals with the views on national identity and the models of national narrative which are assumed by secondary school pupils and trainee history teachers. We examine the degree to which the participants’ opinions correspond either to a social representation/master narrative or to a narrative which understands national identities and nations as social constructs. We analyse the influence of history teaching and extra-curricular dimensions of socialization (the media) on the construction of these opinions. This is a qualitative study of a phenomenological nature, based on open questionnaires and the writing of texts on the subject of history, carried out on samples of university students and trainee teachers. The study was carried out in two separate phases. The initial phase consisted of exploring the subjective representation of national identity by analysing differences according to age, whereas the second stage looked closely at the discourse of students undergoing initial teacher training regarding the history of Spain in order to investigate what elements were predominant in their narrative. The qualitative methodology is set in the context of grounded theory and employs discourse analysis. The results show the predominance of essentialist representations of national identity and the influence of a master narrative. No significant differences were found as far as age or the level of training in history is concerned. The predominant model reflects similarities with those shown in historically-based television series. Keywords: History education, national narrative, national identity, teacher training, primary education, secondary education.
Narrating "Histories of Spain". Student Teachers and the Construction of National Narratives
History Education Research Journal
This study analyses the role of Spanish teacher training students as narrators of what they consider to be the history of Spain. Results of this empirical study are based on a random sample of 103 narratives produced by trainee primary education teachers (20-22 years of age) studying at the University of Murcia. We are interested in understanding the role of students as agents of historical knowledge. Recent research in history education has stressed the need to vindicate the active role of students in the creation of historical narratives. How do students construct their accounts of history? How do they reflect narratives of school-taught history? Their narratives always reveal certain forms and skills employed to represent the past. This study focuses on this perspective. We have analysed their extra-curricular knowledge (family, social environments, mass media and other cultural products such as TV series, videogames, websites, etc.) and their memories of school history (curriculum, textbooks, teachers) using a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology. Our qualitative methodology is based on grounded theory and, in order to analyse discourse, we have used quantitative methodology with the analysis of key events and historical figures present in the narrative, in an attempt to categorise second order concepts and sources of historical knowledge. In the results, essentialist and traditional representations of this historical knowledge can be appreciated. Reported major events are related to a traditional political reading of history and linked to genesis and nation-building events: showing heroes and antiheroes of a national narrative. Regarding the sources of knowledge, teachers' explanations, textbooks and museums are the factors most valued by students.
Revista Electrónica Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado (REIFOP), 2017
This research is linked to the projects “Textbooks and how to learn and teach the history of conflicts in different spaces and times” and “Youth and the ideas of historical truth and intersubjectivity in relation to visual historical narratives”. I investigate the ideas of Brazilian graduate young students about conflicts between Europeans and Indians during the conquest of America, which took place around 1492 and 1550. I produce a research instrument based on methodological criteria of qualitative research (Lessard-Hébert, Goyette y Boutin, 2005). This research tool contains open questions concerning the confrontation of two fragments in history comic books. The first historical graphic narrative, version A, called “Conquest and the colonization of America” is a chapter of the textbook organized as historical comic book “General History: History for modern school” (Castro y Zalla, 1971). The second historical graphic narrative presented in the research instrument, the version B, called “Colombo” (Altan, 1989). In conclusion, it can verify that these young students understand some of the fundamental elements of these artifacts of historical culture greatly facilitate the apprehension of historical knowledge elaborated in an intersubjective and humanistic way. Keywords Teaching History; History Education and Interculturality; Historical graphic narratives; Clashes between Indigenous and Europeans.
Hazards in Spanish History Education: Essentialism, Oblivion and Memory. Lis Cercadillo
The breach between academic history and school history is a recurrent topic in the field of history education. In the last decade, a research trend is being developed in Spain focused on the emotional and affective aspects of history and interested in the role of collective memory and national identity in the development of historical consciousness, in school and outside of it. Different contradictions between academic and school discourses are considered: nation-building narratives and essentialism, and the divergence between history as a rational endeavor and historical memory. It is concluded that school history, though having an important responsibility in the building of national identities, may be taught in an inclusive and multifaceted way from “meta-national” and rational perspectives.
History Education Research Journal, 2019
Brief narratives created by pre-service teachers on a primary education degree course at the University of Murcia (Spain) were analysed to identify the ways in which they presented historical agents in European and Spanish history. The main units of analysis were categorized by the type of agent introduced in each narrative (individual, collective and institutional), then by identifying agents as either active or passive, and finally by describing the characteristics of their actions in terms of reasons and causes/consequences. The results reveal an emphasis on individual agents and the persistence of a superficial historical master narrative that perpetuates a distorted image of history.