{"id":374,"date":"2015-01-16T14:07:23","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T14:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/?p=374"},"modified":"2016-03-30T23:00:49","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T23:00:49","slug":"teaching-history-in-a-multicultural-society-trends-and-tendencies-in-nordic-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/volume-10-no-2-2015\/c81-conference-paper\/teaching-history-in-a-multicultural-society-trends-and-tendencies-in-nordic-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching History in a multicultural society"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\t<div class=\"dkpdf-button-container\" style=\" text-align:right \">\n\n\t\t<a class=\"dkpdf-button\" href=\"\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374?pdf=374\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"dkpdf-button-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-file-pdf-o\"><\/i><\/span> <\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Trends and tendencies in Nordic schools<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Perhaps the most succinct explanation of the crucial role that history plays in the life of us humans is the Ingsoc slogan from <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"George Orwell\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Orwell\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">George Orwell<\/a>\u2019s novel <i>1984<\/i>:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\"><em><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">We cannot, of course, control the past in itself \u2013 at least not as long as we presume that \u2018the past\u2019 has some kind of objective existence. What can be controlled, however, is how we construct and reconstruct our interpretations of the past. Which, when all is said and done, is what history is about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The core content of Orwell\u2019s wordings is reflected in the concept \u2018Historical Consciousness\u2019, which for the last 30 years or so has played a central part in the Scandinavian debate on history teaching and learning. Within that debate, the multi-faceted definition proposed by Karl-Ernst Jeismann in his article \u2018<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Geschichtsbewu\u00dftsein\u2019<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"> (1979) has served as an obvious point of reference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Jeismann\u2019s definition starts with a quote from <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Theodor Schieder\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Theodor_Schieder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Theodor Schieder<\/a>, which in itself is a definition of the concept \u2018historical consciousness\u2019 as an ever-present insight that every human being, and every form of social life, is embedded in time, i.e. has a past and a future that is neither stable nor unchanging or without conditions. He then goes on by stating what can be seen as one of the fundamental, perhaps the most fundamental, element of the concept:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">More than being just knowing or taking an interest in history, historical consciousness comprises the relations between interpretations of the past, understanding of the present, and perspectives on the future (ibid. p. 42).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Linking together the past, the present and the future opens up for a corollary, namely, that history is not a mirror image of the past, but our (present) reconstruction of it. Historical consciousness, writes Jeismann, is thus a mode through which the past, as imagination and experience, is made part of our own time. This also means that the past as reconstruction is dependent on and formed by our present questions, needs, and interests. Jeismann here quotes the French philosopher <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Raymond Aron\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Raymond_Aron\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Raymond Aron<\/a>: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">History is the reconstruction of the lives of the dead, by and for the living. The interests of times present are what make man \u2013 thinking, suffering, acting man \u2013 explore the past (Aron 1961 p.17).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">If history is a reconstruction of the past that springs from the needs and interests of our time and our place \u2013 our lifeworld \u2013 it also follows that the form, the content, and the reflective depth of our historical consciousness will differ from person to person, from group to group. Historical consciousness can have the character of a clich\u00e9 or watchword, or it can be reflected, thought-out, and open to new encounters and experiences. Implied is (a) that everyone has and makes use of (some kind of) historical consciousness, and (b) that one\u2019s historical consciousness, situated in a social context, is constantly changing, added to, and passed on to others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Jeismann finally stresses the importance of historical consciousness as shared, collective experiences \u2013 or as shared and collective stories of experiences. When elements that unite dominate over elements that divide, it will contribute to defining as a group those who share the stories. Historical consciousness as collective experiences can therefore be seen as \u2018a necessary element for the creation and the upholding of human societies\u2019 (Jeismann 1979 p. 43).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"> This aspect, which highlights the connection between, on the one hand, historical consciousness as an individual, personal relation to past, present, and future, and on the other hand as a collective relation, is what gives history its political and ideological charge and also explains why history has had its given place in the curriculum of the compulsory school, from the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century onwards. The education policy of the nation-state is one where the narrative of the \u2018imagined community\u2019 is honed, polished, and above all transferred to generation after generation of school children as part of \u2018the skills and sensibilities which make them acceptable to their fellows, which fit them to assume places in society, and which \u201cmake them what they are\u201d\u2019 (Gellner 1983 p. 37). Through its monopoly of legitimate education the nation-state, controlling the present, has strived to control the past in order to control the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Intense battles over school history textbook content have recently been fought in Greece and Japan (Repoussi 2011; Ogawa &amp; Field 2006). As late as 2013 the UK Department for Education published a proposal for a new history curriculum, aiming at ensuring that all pupils would know and understand \u2018how the British people shaped this nation and how Britain influenced the world\u2019 (Department for Education 2013a p. 3). After heavy criticism from teachers\u2019 associations and academic bodies the curriculum was rewritten and now aims at ensuring a knowledge and understanding of \u2018how people\u2019s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world\u2019 (Department for Education 2013b). Remaining from the first proposal, however, is the idea that British history can be told as \u2018a coherent, chronological narrative\u2019 (ibid.), which, apparently, is supposed to be shared by all as \u2018our history\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The dream, so dear to education policy makers, that school history ought to assimilate young people into a unifying master narrative has, however, become more and more imaginary. As pointed out by Andreas K\u00f6rber (2011), history is, inevitably, affected by contingency:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">&#8230;due to their multi-dimensional plurality, humans exhibit different needs for temporal orientation. Because of the different times, societies, social groups, cultures etc. they live in, they will quite naturally be using different concepts, operations, patterns of explanation and of narrating which in turn will result in different narratives [&#8230;] And as for people living and acting within the plurality of today&#8217;s societies, it becomes vitally important to (be able to) handle this contingency of narrative orientations (ibid. p. 157).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Teaching history as an assimilation project, built on a single, unifying master narrative, is no longer possible, nor is it desirable. A multi-culturalist approach \u2013 to each his or her own history, not to be questioned or criticised \u2013 may at first seem to be an attractive alternative but runs the risk of developing into what Thomas Hylland Eriksen somewhat drastically has labelled \u2018apartheid with a friendly face\u2019 (Eriksen 2005), or at least into societal fragmentation rather than cohesion. Does this also mean that we must renounce Jeismann\u2019s idea that some kind of collective historical experience is necessary for upholding a sustainable society?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">One viable alternative might be to promote a common understanding, not of what history says but what it does. Or, in other words, a collective experience of history as form rather than as content. Or, yet again, to promote a cognitive awareness of one\u2019s own as well as other\u2019s historical consciousness, understood both as a state (something that we have) and as a process (something we use in everyday life).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">In order to achieve this, the scholars involved in the research project <i>FUER Geschichtsbewu\u00dftsein<\/i>, launched in the year 2000, have suggested that four core competencies or fields of competence are crucial for the development of a reflexive historical consciousness, namely the competencies of inquiry, methods, orientation, and subject matter <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">(Schreiber et al. 2006; K\u00f6rber 2011)<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">. The first three can be seen as related to the procedural dimension of historical thinking, the fourth to the substantive dimension of historical \u2018facts\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Starting out from the understanding that historical consciousness as a process starts with an uncertainty, a need for orientation, and a question, the first dimension of competency is the <i>Inquiry Competence<\/i> (\u2018Fragekompetenz\u2019). This is described as \u2018the capability to transform [a] perceived uncertainty into some processable form of historical <i>question<\/i> in order either to reconstruct a historic narrative or to analyze given historical narratives of other people for their historical questions, and to understand them\u2019 (K\u00f6rber 2011 p. 149).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The second procedural dimension, <i>Methods Competence<\/i> (\u2018Methodenkompetenz\u2019) comprises the subject-specific, i.e. historical, methods used for gaining and processing knowledge: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">to categorise, to put bits and pieces in their chronological order, to integrate information into a narrative structure but also to identify and de-code the structure of existing narratives. Central to this field of competence is the capability to both re-construct and de-construct historical narratives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The third and last of the procedural dimensions, <i>Orientation Competence<\/i> (\u2018Orientierungskompetenz\u2019) contains the skills and abilities needed for using the knowledge gained from the re- and de-construction of historical narratives. Here four core competencies are discernible, and they all relate to the aim of the FUER project: developing a reflexive, and also a self-reflexive, historical consciousness. They are also of utmost relevance when considering the role of history and historical narratives in a pluralist society:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">the ability to revise one\u2019s own concept of history as a field of knowledge, including concepts and categories used in historical thinking;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">the ability to revise one\u2019s concepts of the past and the present world, i.e. one\u2019s picture of other people and\/or other times;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">the ability to revise one\u2019s own relation to the past and the present, i.e. to revise one\u2019s own identity, including one\u2019s relation to the actions (commendable or deplorable) of one\u2019s ancestors or members of one\u2019s own group\/culture\/nation;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">the ability to revise one\u2019s own ideas of what can be done in the present and hoped for in the future (K\u00f6rber 2011 p. 150). <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The three procedural dimensions are all linked to a fourth, somewhat improperly named <i>Subject Matter Competence<\/i> (\u2018Sachkompetenz\u2019). Contrary to what may first come to one\u2019s mind this dimension has nothing to do with the memorising of names, dates, or particular events. The FUER project nevertheless used the label:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">&#8230;on the grounds that the \u2018subject matter\u2019 of historical teaching and learning is not the past, but rather \u2018thinking about the past\u2019. Therefore, in our model, this \u2018subject matter competence\u2019 stands for the command over\/ability to use and apply rather abstract first and second order concepts, categories, knowledge of procedures and methods etc (K\u00f6rber 2011 p. 151).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Waltraud Schreiber and Sylvia Mebus have sketched a graphic representation of how the four fields of competence are present in the process of historical thinking:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Figure 1: Historical thinking competencies<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-373\" src=\"http:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/idin_article_kgha.jpg\" alt=\"idin article kgha\" width=\"896\" height=\"854\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/idin_article_kgha.jpg 896w, https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/idin_article_kgha-300x286.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 896px) 100vw, 896px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">after Schreiber &amp; Mebus 2006 p. 13.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Being in possession of these competencies means being able to scrutinise and challenge established \u2018master narratives\u2019 handed down by authoritative (or authoritarian) institutions, among them the school. It also means being able to scrutinise and challenge narratives prevalent in one\u2019s family or peer group, and, ultimately, to scrutinise and revise one\u2019s own ontological narrative. Being in possession of these competencies therefore means being able to exercise a certain amount of control over how history is presently written.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">That history can, and should be viewed as a process rather than a well-defined body of knowledge, and that this process is present not only as a cognitive activity in the classroom or the scholar\u2019s study but also in our everyday life, is an approach that is reflected in the history curriculum in all Nordic countries, most markedly in Denmark and Sweden where the concept \u2018historical consciousness\u2019 was introduced in the 1990\u2019s. In the Danish curriculum, history\u2019s crucial role in human life is described thus:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">People make decisions out of their experience and knowledge of the past, their ideas about the present, and their expectations for the future. That is to say that a time frame \u2013 history \u2013 is a prerequisite for being able to understand oneself and the world as an entirety, as well as to reflect on possible actions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">History is furthermore used to establish and strengthen the consistency of real and imagined communities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">History is thus an integrated aspect of our lives. It is a basic condition of human existence that we are shaped by, as well as co-creators of, history (Undervisningsministeriet 2014 p. 3).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The resemblance with the Swedish curriculum is obvious:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Man\u2019s understanding of the past is interwoven with beliefs about the present and perspectives of the future. In this way, the past affects both our lives today and our choices for the future. Women and men throughout the ages have created historical narratives to interpret reality and shape their surroundings. A historical perspective provides us with a set of tools to understand and shape the present we live in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">[&#8212;]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Teaching should contribute to pupils developing their understanding of how historical narratives are used in society and in everyday life. By this means, pupils should develop different perspectives of their own identities, values and beliefs, and those of others (Skolverket 2011 p. 163).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">To what extent have the curriculum aims been achieved? Has school history abandoned the long-standing tradition of transferring a canonical master narrative of the nation\u2019s past? Thanks to recent studies from Denmark and Sweden, presented at the 28<sup>th<\/sup> Congress of Nordic Historians in 2014, we have at least a provisional answer: history education is undoubtedly heading towards its aims \u2013 but progress is slow and there is still a long way to go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Nanna B\u00f8ndergaard Butters (2014) has performed a study built on observations of history lessons in three classes (4th, 8th and 9th grade) in an urban Danish <i>folkeskole<\/i> (compulsory school) with 60 % plurilingual students (42 different languages were represented among the students), followed up by teacher interviews. A central part of the study was to investigate whether teachers planned for discussions around concepts such as \u2018culture\u2019 and \u2018identity\u2019. All teachers declared that they had not introduced these concepts. One teacher mentioned lack of time and the demand to reach the curriculum\u2019s learning outcomes. Another confessed that she never had thought about these concepts as related to the history subject. A third \u2018solved\u2019 the challenge of pluralism by simply denying it:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">If their histories are given room in the course, you mean? But they too are part of this history&#8230; Actually, I\u2019ve stopped thinking in terms of \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018them\u2019. For me, it\u2019s important that no one is left behind, I am aware that they come from different places and different cultures, but a Danish home can be just as different as the home of a bilingual. I simply do not see veils, or \u2018here\u2019s a Somalian girl\u2019 (ibid.).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">More common was an approach where society\u2019s heterogeneity and plurality were acknowledged in principle, but where a traditionally taught history of Denmark kept its role as a unifying narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Butters\u2019 results have been confirmed by Claus Haas\u2019 findings from a nation-wide survey among History teachers in the Danish <i>folkeskole<\/i>, followed up by qualitative interviews with 20 teachers (Haas 2014a, b). Again, the interviewees at the same time acknowledged diversity and saw Danish culture and history as the obvious unifying factor:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">In my opinion, education should prepare them for the multicultural society which they are about to enter as citizens. But I still believe that&#8230; what I like about the curriculum\u2019s canon after all&#8230; is that somewhere&#8230; a tiny bit of common thread through something&#8230; that we all can feel that right here in our multi-cultural, heterogeneous society, there still is something that bind us together somehow. I think that is a very good idea (Haas 2014a.).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Borrowing a concept from Gregory Ashworth, Haas characterises the typical Danish approach towards pluralism as \u2018Core +\u2019. In Ashworth\u2019s definition, this concept slightly resembles the classic \u2018melting pot\u2019 metaphor, but with the difference that a substantial core of history and heritage is preserved. To this core can be added \u2018such other social groups as are seen to be unthreatening to the existence of the core and even contributing a useful addition<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"> to its variety\u2019 (Ashworth 2007, p.20). However, Haas stresses <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">that this approach is not the outcome of a deliberate choice \u2013 when present in the interview answers, it is conceptually vague and marked by a lack of critical reflection.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">A certain vagueness and lack of rigour is also present in the preliminary results from a Swedish survey carried out as part of a research project on interculturalism and history education conducted by the historians and educationalists Per Eliasson, Maria Johansson, and Kenneth Nordgren (Eliasson 2014). The survey results indicate that history teachers are interested and eager to promote \u2018orientation competence\u2019 of the kind proposed by the German FUER project. They clearly see the relevance of and the possibilities inherent in their subject, but it is uncertain whether they actually contribute with narratives challenging or adding to the textbooks\u2019 \u2018master narratives\u2019. It is also uncertain whether they, tied up in the straight-jacket of a detailed curriculum, can find the time for classroom work focussing on multi-perspectivity and different interpretations and explanations in history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">According to a deceivingly simple but extremely fruitful explanatory model, outlined by the Swedish political scientist Lennart Lundquist (1992), Successful implementation of a reform or programme requires that those who are supposed to carry it out on the shop floor <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">have the understanding, the ability, and the will to implement the programme. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">When it comes to the implementation of history education that is meaningful and sustainable in a society marked by a multi-dimensional plurality, we can therefore ask whether Lundquist\u2019s three requisites are met. Interview answers suggest that they lack the ability due to a shortage of appropriate learning material and best-practice examples and also of time needed \u2013 curricula do not stress procedural knowledge only, there is a huge portion of factual knowledge that must be given time if the learning outcomes are to be fulfilled. They also lack a profound understanding, firmly grounded in theory and established practice. There is, consequently, much to be done in teacher education institutions as well as in the field of continuous professional development, e.g. developing and defining conceptual frameworks for inter-cultural teaching and learning (both generic and subject-specific<span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">) as well as integrating inter-cultural perspectives on teaching and learning in subject-related courses in teacher education programmes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">The good thing is that the perhaps most important factor, a willingness to teach for a pluralistic, multi-cultural society, is present.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"page-break-before: always; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"><strong>References<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Aron, Raymond (1961): <i>Dimensions de la conscience historique<\/i>, Paris: Plon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Ashworth, Gregory J. (2007), \u2018Plural pasts for plural publics in plural places: taxonomy of heritage policies for plural societies\u2019, in: Groote, P., Ashworth, G &amp; Haartsen, T (eds.), <i>Public Places, Public Pasts<\/i>, Groningen: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, pp. 13-26.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">von Borries, Bodo (2008): <i>Historisch Denken Lernen \u2013 Welterschlie\u00dfung statt Epochen\u00fcberblick. Geschichte als Unterrichtsfach und Bildungsaufgabe<\/i>, Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Butters, Nanna B\u00f8ndergaard (2014): \u2018N\u00e5r elever g\u00f8r kultur og bruger historie\u2019. Unpublished conference paper, the 28<sup>th<\/sup> Congress of Nordic Historians, Joensuu 14-17 August 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Department for Education (UK) (2013a): <i>History: Programmes of study for Key Stages 1-3. February 2013<\/i>. London.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Department for Education (UK) (2013b): <i>History: Programmes of study. September 2013<\/i>. Internet: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study\">https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Eliasson, Per (2014): \u2018F\u00f6ruts\u00e4ttningar f\u00f6r en interkulturell historieundervisning\u2019. Unpublished conference paper, the 28<sup>th<\/sup> Congress of Nordic Historians, Joensuu 14-17 August 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (2005): \u2018From obsessive egalitarianism to pluralist universalism? Options for twenty-first century education\u2019. Keynote speech, NERA conference, Oslo 10 March 2005. Internet: <a href=\"http:\/\/hyllanderiksen.net\/Obsessive.html\">http:\/\/hyllanderiksen.net\/Obsessive.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Gellner, Ernest (1983): <i>Nations and Nationalism<\/i>, Oxford: Blackwell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Haas, Claus (2014a): \u2018(Fler)Kulturelle paradokser i historieundervisningen \u2013 om en national kerne + kulturs hegemoni\u2019. Unpublished conference paper, the 28<sup>th<\/sup> Congress of Nordic Historians, Joensuu 14-17 August 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Haas, Claus (2014b): <i>Staten, eliten og &#8216;os&#8217;: erindrings- og identitetspolitik mellem assimilation og livet i salatsk\u00e5len<\/i>. \u00c5rhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Jeismann, Karl-Ernst (1979): \u2018Geschichtsbewu\u00dftsein\u2019, in Bergmann, Klaus et al. (eds.), <i>Handbuch der Geschichtsdidaktik, Vol. 1<\/i>, D\u00fcsseldorf: Schwann, pp. 42-45.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">K\u00f6rber, Andreas (2011): \u2018German History Didactics: From Historical Consciousness to Historical Competencies \u2013 and beyond?\u2019, in Bjerg, Helle, Lenz, Claudia &amp; Thorstensen, Erik (eds.), <i>Historicizing the uses of the past: Scandinavian perspectives on history culture, historical consciousness and didactics of history related to World War II<\/i>, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, pp. 145-164.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Lundquist, Lennart (1992): <i>F\u00f6rvaltning, stat och samh\u00e4lle<\/i>. Lund: Studentlitteratur.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Ogawa, Masato &amp; Field, Sherry L. (2006): \u2018Causation, controversy and condition: recent developments in the Japanese history textbook content and selection process\u2019, in Nicholls, J. (ed.), <i>School history textbooks across the cultures: international perspectives and debates<\/i>, Oxford: Symposium Books, pp. 43-60.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Repoussi Maria (2011): \u2018History Education in Greece\u2019, in Erdmann, E &amp; Hasberg, W (eds.), <i>Facing, Mapping, Bridging Diversity. Foundation of a European Discourse on History Education<\/i>, Schwalbach am Taunus: Wochenschau, pp. 329-370.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Schreiber, Waltraud et al. (2006): <i>Historisches Denken. Ein Kompetenz-Strukturmodell<\/i>, Neuried: ars una.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Schreiber, Waltraud &amp; Mebus, Sylvia (eds.) 2006: <i>Durchblicken. Dekonstruktion von Schulb\u00fcchern<\/i>, Neuried: ars una.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Skolverket 2011: <i>Curriculum for the compulsory school system,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><i><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"> the \u00adpre-school class and the leisure-time centre (Lgr11)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">, Stockholm. Internet: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skolverket.se\/publikationer?id=2687\">http:\/\/www.skolverket.se\/publikationer?id=2687<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Undervisningsministeriet 2014: <i>L\u00e6seplan for faget historie<\/i>, K\u00f8benhavn. Internet: www.emu.dk\/sites\/default\/files\/L%C3%A6seplan%20for%20faget%20historie.pdf<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Meeting the history and heritage of the majority culture in a pluralist society might, at worst, mean giving up the control of one\u2019s own past and assimilating into a new \u2019master narrative\u2019. By re-defining history as a school subject, putting at its core not a set narrative of the past but the cognitive process of thinking about the past, the very process of knowing and understanding might form a ground for a shared experience of history while at the same time allow for the co-existence of different narratives.\u00a0History curricula in the Nordic countries have for the last two decades gradually moved in this direction. Whether classroom work has done so as well remains less certain. Recent studies suggest that History teachers acknowledge that teaching and learning must adjust to the reality of pluralism but are less confident about how to meet the challenge in concrete terms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":383,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[682,600,153,920,921],"coauthors":[1086],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c81-conference-paper","tag-education","tag-history","tag-nordic","tag-schools","tag-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/383"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}