A Bachelor’s degree equivalent to 180 credits with a major (90 credits) in a subject relevant to Historical Studies, such as Ethnology, Archeology, Literary History, History of Ideas or Economic History.

No main field

The aim of this course is for students to develop a critical understanding of various traditions of history didactics/mediations of history. In addition to a comparative approach, the course applies a critical perspective on history didactics/mediation of history and how it is enacted in different contexts and institutions.

The course focuses on how history didactics is addressed in different cultural and educational contexts. Mediation of history within different institutions like states, museums and schools is examined. The course address how the past can be related to the present and the future from a number of perspectives, something that enables a critical approach on history didactics. The course also contain field studies in order to combine theoretical aspects with case studies of mediations of history.

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to

1. Define and compare various approaches to history didactics/mediations of history and their historical origins.
2. Analyse how mediation of history affects different aspects of identity
3. Evaluate how different traditions can affect individuals and societies understandings of the present and the future.
4. Critically analyse how the various traditions are enacted in different contexts of mediation.

The course is based on seminars, workshops and group discussions.

The course is examined by an academic paper that is discussed at a seminar.

The course coordinator will provide information about grading criteria at the start of the course.
It must be possible to distinguish between individual performances for all assessments.

Carretero, Mario, Asensio Brouard, M.M. & Rodríguez Moneo, M. (red.) (2012). History education and the construction of national identities. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub. (359 s.)

Clark, Anna. & Peck, Carla (red.) (2019). Contemplating historical consciousness: notes from the field. (First edition.) New York: Berghahn. (248 s.)

Dessingué, Alexandre (2020). Developing Critical Historical Consciousness: Re-thinking the Dynamics between History and Memory in History Education. Nordidactica - Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education 2020:1 (20 s.)

Green, Alix Ritva (2016). History, policy and public purpose: historians and historical thinking in government. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (146 s.)

Lévesque, Stéphane (2008).  Thinking historically. Educating Students for the Twenty-first Century.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (221 s.)

Lévesque, Stéphane & Croteau, Jean-Philippe (2020). Beyond history for historical consciousness: students, narrative, and memory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (197 s.)

MacMillan, Margaret (2010). The uses and abuses of history. (Paperback edition). London: Profile. (194 s.)

Phillips, Martin S. (2013). On historical distance. New Haven: Yale University Press. (293 s.)

Retz, Tyson (2018). Empathy and history: historical understanding in re-enactment, hermeneutics and education. New York: Berghahn. (280 s.)

Rüsen, Jörn (red.) (2006). Meaning and representation in history. New York: Berghahn. (274 s.)

Straub, Jürgen (red.) (2005). Narration, identity, and historical consciousness. New York: Berghahn. (280 s.)

(2750 pages )

Malmö University provides students who participate in, or who have completed a course, with the opportunity to express their opinions and describe their experiences of the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarise the results of course evaluations. The University will also inform participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures taken in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students (HF 1:14).

If a course is no longer offered, or has undergone significant changes, the students must be offered two opportunities for re-examination based on the syllabus that applied at the time of registration, for a period of one year after the changes have been implemented.

If a student has a Learning support decision, the examiner has the right to provide the student with an adapted test, or to allow the student to take the exam in a different format. The syllabus is a translation of a Swedish source text.