We encounter information about the past in everyday life through films, books and complex historical sources -- such as historic sites or eyewitness accounts. Investigations of how visitors and learners engage with these complex historical sources have mainly focused on the 'something special' of the encounter on the one hand and on the clear…

This paper describes the challenges involved in work in progress on the history of British policy in education in occupied Germany, 1945-1949. The problems centre on the range of archival sources, the structural balance of themes and chronology, and the use of appropriate illustrations. It argues that conclusions about the nature of educational…

International cooperation in history teaching and related teacher education requires clarification of terminology as well as of underlying concepts and theoretical foundations, since these levels are fundamentally intertwining. If these levels are addressed, both comparison and translation do not only make cooperation possible, but promise…

At first sight, there is not much to compare, or any reason to compare, German and South African curricular frameworks. The history, nature of their respective transitions, level of development and educational legacies are very different. But the fall of the Berlin Wall and ending of apartheid brought both within a common neo-liberal global…

"Historical thinking" has a central role in the theory and practice of history education. At a minimum, history educators must work with a model of historical thinking if they are to formulate potential progression in students' advance through a school history curriculum, test that progression empirically, and shape instructional…

Key terms and concepts are crucial tools in teaching and learning in the disciplines. Different linguistic traditions approach such tools in diverse ways. This paper offers an initial contribution by a monolingual Anglophone history educator in dialogue with German history educators. It presents three different scenarios for the potential of…

Late nineteenth-century German-English rivalry changed attitudes in Hamburg. Previously, the once fiercely independent city and its burgeoning mercantile middle class had developed an Anglophilia that justified Hamburg being labelled a "London suburb" and "the most British town on the Continent". The affinity for all things…

State and national education initiatives provide American students with opportunities to engage in close readings of complex texts from diverse perspectives as they actively construct complicated understandings as they explore complex texts. Opportunities for interdisciplinary units emerge as the role of non-fiction in English/language arts and…

At the end of the nineteenth century Aime Bogaerts, a Socialist primary school teacher at a Ghent municipal school and from 1901 on the chief editor of the Socialist newspaper "Vooruit", began a new educational initiative: "the children of the popular classes from Ghent" ("De Gentsche Volkskinderen"). Children from…

This essay uses primary source publications from Nazi Germany to explore how anti-Semitism developed and intensified into a genocidal logic. Understanding how this intensification could occur long before the networks of concentration camps or World War II arose could reveal how language paves a path to genocide. Using the concepts of telos and…

Pupils' essays represent an overlooked resource for historical inquiry. Historians have often ignored young people's work as 'unauthentic', falsely believing it to be merely the mimicking of teachers' and parents' beliefs. But young people are not merely mouthpieces for adults, as research on teacher-student interactions has demonstrated. By…

Discusses ways to use a primary source document--a telegram from the U.S. Ambassador to Germany to the American Secretary of State describing Hitler's actions to consolidate his power on March 23, 1933--in helping students understand and compare the leadership of Roosevelt and Hitler. (CS)

Examines the influence of Karl Marx's writings on Adolf Hitler, and asks whether there was a causal nexus between Russian and Nazi atrocities. Uses primary sources as a method for historical comparison. Compares Hitler's writings on antisemitism with those of Marx. (NL)

Contends that the electronic generation of documents in modern offices will transform the nature of archives and, therefore, the techniques of historical research. Discusses advantages and disadvantages for historical researchers. Urges historians to express their concerns about these issues to the wider scholarly community. (CFR)

Presents a classroom lesson that utilizes primary sources about Auschwitz, the World War II Nazi concentration camp. Two letters confronting the issue of whether or not U.S. planes should bomb the camps are included. Recommends seven teaching strategies for the lesson and identifies additional resources. (CFR)