1

NEWS FROM EHISTO

Index

Overview about EHISTO

Report about the Kick-off meeting

Aims and results of the baseline study

Echoes of EHISTO in China

EHISTO network

EHISTO next steps

EHISTO: LLP Project 2012-2014 Terry Haydn (University of East Anglia) - The rationale for the EHISTO project is to

explore how popular history magazines can be used in history teaching in schools,

in history teacher education, and in continuing professional development for tea-

chers, in order to develop the critical media literacy of young people. It will foster

the development in young people of intercultural and media-critical competence in

dealing with commercial representations of history which they will encounter outsi-

de the history classroom, focusing in particular on the phenomenon of popular

history magazines which have become increasingly popular and available across

EU countries.

The project aims to develop study packages and learning objects based on artic-

les from popular magazines, and activities deriving from the study of those maga-

zine articles. An emphasis will be placed on aspects of history which are covered

in the history curricula and in popular magazines across the countries involved in

the project, which can be said to represent ‘European History Crossroads’, and

which will therefore add an element of multiperspectivity, interculturality and dif-

fering national perspectives to the materials and study packages which are deve-

loped.

EHISTO is funded with support from the European Commission.

EHISTO Newsletter #1 May 2013

The EHISTO project will last from

November 2012 until October 2014.

During that time this newsletter will

provide an up-date of the project

activities every six months. This first

edition informs about the kick-off-

conference, and the results of the

baseline studies, that were part of

workpackage 2. Apart from giving

an insight of the project work the

newsletter invites you to get ac-

quainted with the project members

and the partner schools, that will

introduce themselves in every editi-

on of the newsletter. Finally each

issue will present other relevant

activities and events related to the

EHISTO project. The EHISTO team

is pleased to launch this first issue

of the newsletter. In case you want

to subscribe to the newsletter plea-

se refer to the website

www.european-crossroads.de/

newsletter/.

2

EHISTO: European

History crossroads as

pathways to intercultur-

al and media education

LLP-Comenius-Project,

11/2012-10/2014

Coordinator: University of

Augsburg, Department for

History Didactics

Consortium: University of

Augsburg (Germany), Uni-

versity of Salamanca

(Spain), Academy of Łódź

(Poland), Dalarna University

(Sweden), University of

East Anglia (United King-

dom), FWU Institute for Film

and Pictures in Science and

Education (Germany)

Partner schools: Holbein-

Gymnasium, Augsburg

(Germany), Wernher-von-

Braun-Gymnasium, Fried-

berg (Germany), St.-Thomas

-Gymnasium, Kammeltal

(Germany), IES „Campo

Gharro“, La Fuente de San

Esteban (Spain), IES

„Federico García Bernalt“,

Salamanca (Spain), Zespół

Szkół Integracyjnych nr 1 w

Łodzi, Łodzi (Poland), Bor-

gaskolan, Gävle, (Sweden),

Östra gymnasiet, Trångsund

(Sweden), Hellesdon High

School, Norwich (United

Kingdom).

Consultans: Prof. Dr. Susan-

ne Kinnebrock, University of

Augsburg (Germany), Dr.

Katja Gorbahn, Aarhus Uni-

versity (Denmark), Prof. Dr.

Meng Zhongjie, East China

Normal University

Sponsors: EU-Lifelong Lear-

ning Programme, Bavarian

Research Alliance

Website: www.european-

crossroads.eu

EHISTO consortium — Kick-off meeting, Augsburg (Germany)

EHISTO Newsletter #1

Outcomes of the EHISTO project

The outcomes will be in the form of:

• Transnational teaching materials and teacher manuals

• A project seminar and module guide for use in teacher development courses

• A course for teachers and associated handbook which will enable the project

materials to be used in schools across the EU

• A project website which will facilitate dissemination of the materials and

teaching approaches

• Dissemination through papers and articles presented at relevant history edu-

cation forums, regionally, nationally and internationally

• A network of schools and training institutions which will, in conjunction with the

project website and dissemination activities, aid sustainability.

EHISTO kick-off meeting, 28th-30th November 2012 Augsburg, Germany – Researchers from the six European partner-organisations

of the EU-project "European History Crossroads as Pathways to Intercultural and

Media Education" (EHISTO) met for the kick-off meeting from November 28th till

November 30th, after being invited by Augsburg’s project coordinator Prof. Dr.

Susanne Popp (Department for History Didactics). Along with Augsburg Universi-

tys’ Department of History Didactics, experts of the Universidad de Salamanca

(Spain), the Darlarna University (Sweden), the University of East Anglia (Great

Britain), the Academy of Management Łódź (Poland) plus the Institute for Film and

Picture in Science and Education (FWU) in Grünwald participate in the EHISTO-

project.

3

EHISTO Newsletter #1

European History Crossroads

The focal point of this first project meeting was to establish

the two ‚‘European History Crossorads’ (EHC). For the pro-

ject, they are topics that are historically relevant for teaching

and can be found in all European history magazines and are

especially important in all national curricula for teaching his-

tory.

Therefore the EHC allow for the comparison of national views

of history as well as the national magazine-cultures. With the

comparative approach, this project combines the media-

critical level with intercultural aims, where similarities and

differences in European development cultures of mass media

will be highlighted and explained by using transnational phe-

nomena, developments and events, like migration, religion,

cultural exchange, conflicts and peace agreements.

It was unanimously determined that the following topics are

represented in all partner countries’ curricula and popular

science history magazines: the Crusades, Reformation, Co-

lumbus, French Revolution, Napoleon, First and Second

World War, Hitler, Holocaust und Cuban Missile Crisis and

the topics that span vast time periods: Islam, Migration and

Anti-Semitism.

After a detailed discussion of these EHC, the partners defi-

ned the topics „Voyages of discovery/Colonialism/Empire“

and „the outbreak of World War One“ as EHC for the EHIS-

TO project. Monika Vinterek and Thomas Nygren (Sweden)

coordinate the process (WP 3) in which the partners will pick

two magazines for each EHC, translate them and present

them on the website. This provides the basis for the interacti-

ve learning and teaching modules, which will be developed

later on during the project.

Close cooperations with schools

The cooperation with the partner schools is particularly important for the EHISTO-project. The respective partner schools

were already included in a preliminary study – curricula and market analysis as well as qualitative interviews with the partner

teachers and quantitative surveys with numerous history teachers. This empirical study is lead by Terry Haydn (England).

It is primarily about the survey of the history teachers’ attitude towards the popular science magazines in general, and in

particlular about the history didactical qualities and if they can be used in history lessons. Furthermore we hope for informati-

on about media critical aspects and the question, how schools deal with the observed gap between popular history culture

outside of school and the history lessons at school.

Partner school: Holbein-Gymnasium, Augsburg (Germany)

4

EHISTO Newsletter #1

Terry Haydn (University of East Anglia)

Aims and scope

In terms of deliverables, the baseline

study aims to find out teachers’ views

and practice in terms of the use of histo-

ry magazines. ‘What questions are

worth asking?’ about popular history

magazines, and what sort of materials

and activities based around popular

history magazines would be helpful in

developing the historical, critical and

media literacy of young people?

At the opening EHISTO seminar in

Augsburg, it was decided to focus on

two particular historical topics which

were felt to be commonly represented in

the history curricula of partner countries

(and probably across the EU in general)

and which were likely to be also re-

presented in popular history magazines.

The two topics chosen were a) the

causes/outbreak of World War One, and

b) Voyages of Discovery/Colonialism/

Empire. These topics could be seen to

represent a European ‘history cross-

roads’, in the sense that the topics are

widely encountered, both in history

classrooms and in ‘public history’ outsi-

de the school, through television, the

internet, and in newspapers and maga-

zines.

Baseline study overview

Through a combination of question-

naires and interviews with history tea-

chers in all five of the countries invol-

ved, the baseline study aimed to gain

insight into the issues described above,

and in particular:

• To what extent do history teachers

currently make use of popular history

magazines in their teaching?

• What are their ideas about how po-

pular history magazines might be used

to develop students’ critical media lite-

racy and intercultural understanding?

• History teachers’ views about the

role that critical media literacy ought to

play in history education, and if this is

considered to be a legitimate and im-

portant aim of history education, how

this might best be developed through

the use of popular history magazines,

and how to address the gap between

the sort of history taught in schools and

the ‘public’ history which young people

encounter outside school.

• What are history teachers’ views on

how courses of initial teacher education,

and the continuing professional develo-

pment of qualified teachers might be

used to improve young people’s critical

media literacy through the use of history

magazines?

• To what extent are the topics cho-

sen at the Augsburg seminar re-

presented in current history curricula

and examinations (and in popular histo-

ry magazines)?

• How important is the development of

critical media literacy through school

history in the history curriculum specifi-

cations in the countries involved in the

project (and to what extent do they emb-

race the Council of Europe recommen-

dations)? What are history teachers’

views on the use of school history to

develop students’ critical media literacy?

Results of the study

The result of the baseline study is on

the one hand a collection of documents

which report the outcomes of question-

naire and interview surveys of history

teachers involved in the EHISTO project

in relation to the questions posed above

(consisting of aggregated questionnaire

data from all five countries and case

records of all countries, a summary of

the key findings arising out of the inter-

views and case records of the interview

data from all countries). On the other

hand partners were asked to report

back on the extent to which the two to-

pics chosen for the focus of the project

(Causes and Outbreak of World War

One, and Voyages of Discovery-

Colonialism-Empire) were part of the

curricula and to which extent critical

media literacy and the recommenda-

tions of the Council of Europe for history

teaching are explicitly mentioned in

curriculum specifications. The project

partners developed a summary with key

points arising out of partner responses

to the above questions and a curriculum

synopsis of all participating countries.

The newsletter provides on the following

pages extracts from the summaries for

both parts of the baseline study.

EHISTO baseline study

EU-LLP-Programme The European Commissi-

on’s Lifelong Learning Pro-

gramme enables people at

all stages of their lives to

take part in stimulating lear-

ning experiences, as well as

helping to develop the edu-

cation and training sector

across Europe.

The Comenius Sub-

Programme focuses on all

levels of school education,

from pre-school and primary

to secondary schools. It is

relevant for everyone invol-

ved in school education:

mainly pupils and teachers

but also local authorities,

representatives of parents’

associations, non-

government organisations,

teacher training institutes

and universities.

5

EHISTO Newsletter #1

Terry Haydn (University of East Anglia) - The curricular sy-

nopses revealed several major points of divergence in the

official arrangements for the teaching of history in high

schools across the project partners involved, but perhaps the

most reassuring point to emerge was that in terms of the

choices which were made at the Augsburg kick-off meeting,

the two topics which were selected for focus and develop-

ment proved to be unproblematic in terms of being taught in

schools, sometimes at more than one age level, as well as

being featured in popular history magazines.

In terms of the relevance of these arrangements and diffe-

rences for the execution of the project, several points are

worth noting:

In terms of the dissemination of resources and materials ari-

sing out of the project, across the countries involved, and

across the EU more generally, it appears that Spain and Ger-

many have federal structures for education, with separate

regions having autonomy in curriculum arrangements. Swe-

den, Poland and England have national systems for educati-

on, and curriculum stipulations that apply nationwide. This

picture is complicated by a recent development in the UK,

where although there is still a ‘National Curriculum’ for history

(and other subjects), new types of schools – Academies

(which now account for more than half of the high schools in

England) and Free Schools, have autonomy over curriculum

matters, and are not required to teach the National Curricu-

lum. However, recent surveys by the Historical Association

suggest that in spite of this autonomy, and the latitude cur-

rently afforded to all schools in terms of which particular his-

torical topics they choose to focus on, in practice there is still

a considerable degree of conformity in terms of which topics

are taught to students.

The baseline study – Curricular synopsis: Points of relevance to the project arising out of curricular synopses

England

Under both current and proposed versions of the National

Curriculum for history in England, the causes and outbreak of

World War One are and will be taught in just about every high

school – it would be highly unusual if any high school of

whatever type did not teach this topic. The situation with re-

gard to the second chosen topic (Voyages of Discovery/

Colonialism/Empire) is more complicated. Whereas some

years ago, most English schools taught about Columbus, De

Gama and Magellan and the opening up of ‘The New World’,

the very strong emphasis on British history in more recent

years has meant that the Voyages of Discovery, Columbus

etc, are less widely taught than in the past, and colonialism

and empire tend to focus more specifically on British explo-

rers, and the development of the British Empire. The British

Empire is a major topic in both the current and proposed ver-

sions of the National Curriculum. Popular history magazines

also give considerable attention to controversies of interpre-

tation about the British Empire. There is also no shortage of

magazine articles about the causes and outbreak of World

War One, and this is likely to continue to be the case, given

the approaching centenary of the outbreak of this war. As in

some of the other countries, this topic could be taught to pu-

pils at more than one age level.

6

EHISTO Newsletter #1

In terms of alignment with Council of Europe recommenda-

tions, and the aims of the EHISTO project, there is a

considerable degree of alignment with the stated aims of the

current National Curriculum for history in England, with its

strong emphasis on the development of disciplinary under-

standing alongside the development of students’ substantive

historical knowledge and understanding.

However, in terms of links to the present, and to students’

everyday lives, unlike the situation in Spain, Sweden and

Bavaria, the Secretary of State has urged that there should

be a move away from trying to make the history curriculum

‘relevant’, and wants schools (as in the Netherlands) to place

more emphasis on the classical canon of major events in the

nation’s political and constitutional history. It is interesting to

note that in the proposals for the new curriculum, history

‘stops’ with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, and

the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. A recent survey by the

Historical Association shows that this goes against the fee-

lings of the majority of history teachers in the UK.

In terms of the range of resources to be used in the teaching

of history, teachers are urged to use a wide range of teaching

approaches, including museums, field trips and the use of

new technology: popular history magazines are not mentio-

ned explicitly, but there is nothing to stop or discourage their

use, and it is unlikely that their use in the project would occa-

sion any problems or complaints.

Bavaria/Germany

In terms of the Bavarian curriculum’s links to EHISTO and

the Council of Europe objectives, both the topics chosen fea-

tured in the lower high school curriculum, between 7th and

9th grade, although there was some variation in the year in

which students would encounter these topics, according to

the type of school involved. In terms of what the curriculum

had to say about the use of popular media products and

other elements of public history, the curriculum synopsis sug-

gested that given the inclusion of ‘historical culture’ in curricu-

lum specifications, it was at least implicit that artefacts such

as history magazines should be part of history teaching in

high schools, ‘moreover the curriculum asks to cover multi-

media objects and aims at linking history to the pupil’s life-

world (extracurricular involvements with history)’. Moreover,

in the history curriculum for the Hauptschule/Mittelschule,

there was a stipulation that ‘pupils shall learn to deal with

press products.’ Another element of the curriculum which

accorded with the Council of Europe principles for the

teaching of history was the requirement that students should

develop a knowledge about ‘how “history” is created and

what we understand as working methods of academic histo-

ry’. Another avenue for the use of history magazines was the

requirement for interdisciplinary teaching, which might make

possible the use of history magazines in language teaching.

(This is an element which might be explored further in the

EHISTO project, as this might also be a possible approach in

other countries).

Poland

Compared to England and Sweden in particular, the Polish

curriculum placed more explicit emphasis on detailing the

substantive historical content to be covered in the history

curriculum, with less emphasis (at least explicitly) on the de-

velopment of disciplinary understanding and second order

concepts. Although the specifications presented in the sum-

mary mary of the core curriculum did not explicitly link to the

Council of Europe recommendations on the teaching of histo-

ry as clearly as in some other cases, this did not seem to

present a problem in terms of teachers exploring and develo-

ping materials and developing teaching approaches based

on the EHISTO and the Council of Europe aims. There was

also less direct reference to linking the past to the present

than in some of the specifications in some of the other count-

ries. Although there was no explicit mention of the use of

media and popular representations of the past as being a

necessary element in teaching approaches, neither did there

appear to be anything to discourage or prohibit the use of

such resources. In terms of the chosen topics, these seemed

to form part of both the junior high school and secondary

school curricula, and to be featured in both secondary

schools and vocational secondary schools.

They are everywhere: discovered at a kiosk in Brussels

7

EHISTO Newsletter #1

Spain The overview of the Spanish system for history education

showed that intercultural aims were explicitly mentioned in

the curriculum specifications, Article 4 of the ESO level ob-

jectives stating that pupils should learn ‘the fundamental as-

pects regarding culture, Geography and History, both from

Spain and the world, to respect the artistic, cultural and lingu-

istic heritage; to know about the diversity of cultures and

societies in order to better and critically value them, develo-

ping attitudes of respect both by the own and the others’ cul-

tures’. As in the case of Bavaria, there was also explicit refe-

rence to students being able to use information coming from

‘the social environment, mass media and ICT’. As in Eng-

land, the two chosen topics are taught at lower secondary

level and ‘also reviewed at Upper Secondary level.’ In terms

of general methodological principles, teachers were allowed

to use ‘autonomous approaches’, and there was an acknow-

ledgement that in order to maximise student motivation, ‘it is

convenient to explicitly remark the usefulness of the contents

to be learned’, and that this could be effected by relating con-

tent to students’ ‘environment and everyday life’. (This is in

direct contrast to the proposed National Curriculum for histo-

ry in England).

Sweden

Like the National Curriculum for England, much of the

Swedish history syllabi focused on the development of discip-

linary understanding, rather than confining itself primarily to a

list of content to be covered. In this respect there was clear

convergence with many of the Council of Europe’s objectives

for the teaching of history, and on the importance of develo-

ping students’ ability to analyse and assess information criti-

cally, ‘Understanding how history is manmade and needs to

be critically examined to be of use (and not misuse)’, ‘Know-

ledge of time periods, processes of change, events and per-

sons on the basis of different interpretations and per-

spectives’, and being able to ‘give an account of some histo-

rical processes and events that have been used in different

ways, and in basic terms explain why they have been used

differently’. There is also (unlike the proposals for the new

National Curriculum for history in England), a requirement for

students to develop ‘The ability to use a historical frame of

reference to understand the present and to provide perspecti-

ve on the future’. Although core content is not spelled out in

the same detail as in other countries, mention is made of the

need to cover ‘colonialism’, and ‘conflicts’, and EHISTO ex-

plorations and enquiries before and at the Augsburg kick-off

meeting suggested that the choice of topics would not be

problematic for Swedish schools, either in terms of what to-

pics were taught in schools, or the availability of appropriate

magazine articles on the two topics chosen.

Zhongjie Meng (East China Nor-

mal University) - The Program of

EHISTO is echoed positively in

China, after associate Prof. Dr.

Zhongjie Meng as a participant in

the first conference in Augsburg

introduced a brief message in the

Chinese Twitter (www.weibo.com)

last November. In his message he

explained the purpose and struc-

ture as well as the whole opera-

tion of EHISTO. More than 30

reviewers, the majority of whom

are now history professors in different Chinese universities,

have not only transmitted the information but also taken part

in a small discussion through twitter as the platform. It was

most attractive for Chinese academia, to know a lot more

about the perspective of European historians, to observe

varieties of public history. Additionally the research strategy

on the interaction between popular history magazines and

history didactics was discussed.

On the one hand, it could be challenging for professional

historians to ponder over the fast developing public history in

China since the new century. This growth of interest has led

to the result, that some historians have presented a plan to

establish a committee of public history to the Chinese Histori-

an Association at the end of last year and will prepare for the

first meeting of public history in Beijing this May, as a positive

action of the boom of public history. Chinas historians hope

for further possibilities to get to know more about the EHIS-

TO project. On the other hand the EHISTO conference

brought interesting issues for considerations in using a com-

parative approach: This approach illustrated e.g. the different

ideas of the project partners as well as of the history maga-

zines on the important eras of European history and on the

different barycenters in the narratives of national history. Ac-

cording to the minds of Chinese historians it becomes visible

that the process of “Europeanization” seems to be a more

difficult task on the field of culture than on the fields of politics

or economy.

Echoes of EHISTO in China

Prof Dr. Zhongije Meng

8

EHISTO Newsletter #1

Terry Haydn (University of East Anglia) - The next step

during the baseline study aimed to find out teachers’ views

and practice in terms of the use of history magazines through

a combination of questionnaires and interviews with history

teachers in all five of the countries involved. In all, there were

85 questionnaire responses, and this data was complemen-

ted by 12 interviews with teachers from partner schools. Ba-

seline data was also obtained about the views of participants

in the Augsburg kick-off meeting about their views of the role

that history magazines play, and might play, in history educa-

tion. The outcomes are presented below in extracts.

Some of the reasons why respondents thought that it would be ‘a good thing’ if popular history magazines were more extensively used in history education:

’The Magazine articles often provide more depth of historical

knowledge/information than text books.’

’If it led to more students buying history magazines of their

own accord, that would be a good thing – signifies a commit-

ment to and engagement with history.’

’On the whole, history magazines are a fairly ‘respectable’,

trustworthy and to at least some extent scholarly representa-

tion of the past compared to some of the history found in

newspapers and on the internet.’

’It can get students ‘doing history’ outside the confines of

school and lessons if they are reading magazine articles in

their own time – potentially increases the time that they are

engaged with the past.’

’If they read more than one article on a historical topic, or

articles which talk about different opinions about a topic or

person, it introduces them to controversies of interpretation

and the idea of multiperspectivity.’

’Similarly, if they read a range of articles on a particular topic

they are introduced to the idea of history as something that is

mediated by a community of practice which collectively gives

authority to findings about the past, and to the idea that histo-

ry is contested and not subject to a single and simple ‘right

answer.’

’History magazines contribute to good history teaching even

if it is just at the level of history teachers and history teacher

trainers updating their subject knowledge and keeping up to

date with recent scholarship.’

’Even if students just read history magazines (without neces-

sarily engaging with activities, learning objects, worksheets

etc), this is in itself a good thing as it develops their subject

knowledge, and offers them good models of writing.’

’High level production values, ‘glossiness’ and topicality and

help make history attractive and more connected to the outsi-

de world compared to text books.’

Ideas about the ways in which popular history magazines might be used to im-prove history education, particularly in respect of EHISTO objectives and Council of Europe guidance on good practice in history education:

Many magazines have online features – associated website,

podcasts, blogs: it might be good to get students using these

features, especially blogs where students can post com-

ments on articles and become actively engaged in debates

and controversies about magazine articles.

As discussed at the kick-off meeting and in the interviews

conducted as part of Workpackage 2, popular history maga-

The baseline study – Summary and key points arising out of EHISTO participants‘ views

Pupils who read popular history

magazines according to the teachers

3%

0%

50%

28%

19%

A lot

Few

Hardly any

None

Don't know

9

EHISTO Newsletter #1

zines have some flaws and weaknesses. This is an opportu-

nity rather than a problem. As one respondent pointed out,

‘Pupils can get familiar with quality standards’ (in historical

sources) only if they deal with products which often neglect

these standards.’

‘Issues such as nationalistic bias or the furthering of particu-

lar nationalist (or classist, or sexist) agendas can themselves

be, or become, the subject of scrutiny in classrooms.’

‘Articles can be found which explicitly link past events to cur-

rent problems and controversies so that students stop thin-

king of history as something that is past and gone and not

very important.’

‘Find some ‘polemical’ articles that make simple polarisations

and which oversimplify historical problems and issues and

then find other articles which make students realise that

such polarisations and oversimplifications are often un-

helpful.’

‘Useful to find articles which show students how history is

often misused by people in the present for unethical purpo-

ses’ (‘I hope students can see the different ways history is

popularized, used and misused’)’.

‘Draw attention to the gap between school history, public

history, and ‘popular history magazine history’. Broaden stu-

dents’ understanding of the breadth of history that is ‘out

there’. (‘Examining history magazines, pupils may recognize

what kind of history is regarded to be important, they will no-

tice that history in their schoolbooks is not equal to the histo-

ry presented in magazines.’ ‘There will be differences that

students can also identify in classrooms – national perspecti-

ves primarily, but perhaps (hopefully) also gender, social and

cultural.’

‘Develop their understanding of history magazines as cultural

artefacts, increase their understanding of ‘signifiers’. (‘I think

there is a need to work with meta-questions about teaching

and learning from texts, before we actually get into the histo-

rical magazines themselves’, ‘It will let students being aware

of ideological foundations and commercial interests behind

publishing groups. This should be useful for stimulating criti-

cal thinking with regard to History and respective narratives,

taking into account both ideological differences and uses of

information and historical events for political and commercial

purposes’).

‘Opportunity to develop students’ understanding of the im-

portance of provenance and referencing’ (‘popular maga-

zines often do not cite the sources’).

‘Opportunity to develop students’ understanding of the tenta-

tive, provisional and changing nature of historical know-

ledge’ (to what extent do magazines acknowledge doubt and

uncertainty about conclusions and findings, or present alter-

native possibilities?

Discuss and develop understanding of the changing ‘alpha-

bet – icon ratio’ of contemporary society. Use of pictures – as

sources, or mainly ‘decorative’ and ‘glossy’?

‘Explore possibilities of use in language teaching’ (‘An obvi-

ous possibility for an interdisciplinary teaching combining

History and German.’)

‘Compare the pros and cons of different history magazines,

are some magazines better than others? What makes a his-

tory magazine good or bad? Does it depend on ‘audience’?’

‘Give students practice in critisising magazine articles for

quality and reliability, and get them to think/discuss the com-

parative reliability of magazine articles in relation to other

public sources about history – history in the newspapers, in

films, on television, on the internet.’

‘Important not to lose sight of the motivational potential of

history magazines’ (‘And last not least history magazines can

motivate or deepen the interest in history – and this is the

most important starting point for acquiring competencies in

dealing with historical culture that is around the pupils every-

where.’).

How often teachers use extracts or articles out of

popular history magazines in their teachings

9%

70%

0%21%

Quite often

From time to

time

Occasionally

Never

10

EHISTO Newsletter #1

EHISTO partner: University of Salamanca, Spain

The University of Salamanca,

one of the oldest Universities in

Europe, founded in 1218, has

today become a modern Europe-

an University, open to the culture

of practically every branch of

teaching. Currently, the Universi-

ty of Salamanca teaches first and

second cycle undergraduate

degrees to almost 28000 stu-

dents, in addition to nearly 3000

students of Doctorate and Mas-

ter degrees. With more than three thousand researchers, who make up 70 depart-

ments, 26 Faculties and Schools, 18 institutes and other research units belonging

to the social, biomedical, human, experimental and formal sciences, it stands out

as one of the main public research organizations in Spain.

The Research GRoup on InterAction and eLearning (GRIAL), directed by Francis-

co José García Peñalvo, Computer Science Department Professor, is an official

and stable Research Group at the University of Salamanca, part of IUCE (Instituto

de Ciencias de la Educación) awarded every year since 2007 as “Excellent Re-

search Group” by the Regional Government of Castilla y León, in acknowledgment

of its innovative approach of both ICT and Didactical Research activities. The

group is nowadays composed by 55 active researchers (in service University

Teachers and Researchers, as well as other collaborators coming from Education,

Public Administration and Industries) belonging to different areas, from Computer

Science to Educational Sciences, Philosophy, Social Sciences and Humanities, all

of them joined by the common interest of improving the quality of learning and

researching processes by the use of both innovative ICT and methodological ap-

proaches.

EHISTO partner school: Borgarskolan, Sweden

Borgarskolan presents itself as

the oldest business school in

Sweden. It is today an Upper Se-

condary School that offers both

preparatory and vocational educa-

tional programmes. Teaching for

instance media, social science

and auto-technology Borgarskolan

contains a great diversity among

the 850 students and its teachers.

As a participant in the EHISTO project, history teacher Robert Thorp sees a

’possibility to use popular history magazines to help pupils develop their critical

thinking’. He states that using the material from EHISTO might highlight ’different

uses of history and how that influences the way history is portrayed and inter-

preted. I think an awareness of this is crucial for an individual to develop a source

critical ability’.

Take part in EHISTO The EHISTO project aims to

create an ever growing net-

work of institutions and indivi-

duals interested in EHISTO

to be constantly developed

during the whole EHISTO

project. Being involved in the

EHISTO network means to

be timely updated about re-

search processes.

For joining the EHISTO net-

work please fill in the online

forms on

www.european-

crossroads.de/

bepartoftheproject/

or just write an e-mail to

info@european-

crossroads.eu

We would be very glad to

come into contact with

you!

EHISTO network The EHISTO project includes,

besides the University of Augs-

burg as coordinator, five Euro-

pean research centres, which are

all experienced in multiperspecti-

val and media-critical approaches

to history education. The project

also involves a number of Euro-

pean secondary schools, several

associated partners, and four

internationally renowned consul-

tants. All these different instituti-

ons and partners will be working

together in order to achieve the

project aims.

EHISTO team — University of Salamanca

Borgarskolan, Gävle (Sweden)

11

Contact

Coordinator:

Prof. Dr. Susanne Popp

Miriam Hannig

Department of

History Didactics

University of Augsburg

Universitätsstraße 10

86159 Augsburg

Germany

E-mail:

info@european-

crossroads.eu

Visit our website:

www.european-

crossroads.eu

Workpackage 3: Developing learning material

and teacher manuals

In this workpackage the results of the baseline study will be

transferred into history teaching in close cooperation with the

pilot schools by developing Learning Objects that will be later

on presented on the website of the project. For each of the

topics, worksheets will be designed emphasising media edu-

cation and content related aspects.

This will be done by analyzing and comparing the covers,

texts and pictures of the history magazines in order to learn

how popular history magazines adress their audience and

how they shape history for the mass media market. As result

of workpackage 3 the Learning Objects will be presented in

October at the second meeting.

Workpackage 4: Development module and module guide

for initial teacher training

The workpackage includes the development of a module for

initial teacher training as well as of study material. A first versi-

on of the module concept ist discussed at the moment and will

be complemented by the partners. A final version will be

presented at the next conference. The conference will take

place in Lodz/Poland from 28th to 30th October 2013.

NEWSLETTER EDITORS:

Terry Haydn, Susanne Friz, Thomas Nygren, Jutta Schu-

mann, Miriam Hannig, Oliver Simmet

GRAPHIC DESIGN:

Susanne Friz, Oliver Simmet

Project duration: 01/11/2012-31/10/2014

Project coordinator: Prof. Dr. Susanne Popp

Coordination organisation: University of Augsburg

Projekt No.: 527752-LLP-1-2012-1-DE-COMENIUS-CMP

EHISTO Newsletter #1

The EHISTO newsletter is published every six months and contains information about project implementation activities and achievements. All partners con-tribute to its contents, reporting also latest news on studies and research. To apply for this newsletter please fill in the form on www.european-crossroads.de/newsletter/ or just write an e-mail to newsletter@european-crossroads.eu.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This newsletter reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission can-not be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

May 2013

Conference: LINQ2013. Learning Innovations

and Quality. „The future of digital resources“,

16th-17th May 2013, Rome/Italy [LINK]

September 2013

Conference: Annual conference of the Interna-

tional Society of History Didactics (ISHD):

Colonialism, decolonization and post-colonial

historical perspectives – Challenges for Histo-

ry Didactics and history teaching in a globali-

zing world, 16th-18th September 2013, Tutzing/

Germany [LINK]

Conference: SINTICE 2013. XV. Simposio

Internacional de Tecnologías de la Informa-

ción y las Comunicaciones en la Educación,

17th-20th September 2013, Madrid/Spain

[LINK]

Conference: XX. Biennial Conference of Ger-

man Society for History Didactics: History

Learning In Biographical Perspective.

Sustainability - Development - Generation

Difference, 25th-27th September 2013, Göttin-

gen/Germany [LINK]

November 2013

Conference: TEEM. Technological Ecosys-

tems for Enhancing Multiculturality, 14th-15th

November 2013, Salamanca/Spain [LINK]

Trade faire: Interpädagogica, Specialist educa-

tional trade fair for teaching aids, equipment,

culture and sport, 14th-16th November 2013,

Salzburg/Austria [LINK]

EHISTO related forthcoming events

EHISTO next steps