Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social Representations of the Past and Competences in History Education

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education

Abstract

Research on social representations (SR) of history within the field of social psychology may provide guidelines that can strengthen meta-cognitive competences in history teaching. This chapter reviews existing empirical research on SR of history in order to enrich the discussion on history education and the formation of political culture, first explaining how collective memory may be a result of history education. Then, theoretical and empirical evidence that may serve as guidelines for strengthening meta-cognitive competences in history education is reviewed, presenting biases that may exist in determining what is historically significant and explaining the importance of understanding historical continuity and change when learning history. Lastly, tools are presented that may enhance learning to identify multiple causes and consequences in history through perspective-taking. Some major implications and conclusions are considered.

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [grant numbers PSI2008-02689/PSIC PSI2011-26315] and the University of the Basque Country [grant number IT-666-13].

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bar-Tal, D. (2013). Intractable Conflicts: Socio-Psychological Foundations and Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Barton, K. C. (2012). School History as a Resource for Construction Identities. In M. Carretero, M. Asensio, & M. Rodríguez-Moneo (Eds.), History Education and the Construction of National Identities (pp. 93–108). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bickford, J. H. (2013). Examining Historical (Mis)Representations of Christopher Columbus within Children’s Literature. Social Studies Research and Practice, 8(2), 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bobowik, M., Páez, D., Basabe, N., Licata, L., & Klein, O. (2014). Victorious Justifications: Involvement of Nations in World Wars, Cultural Values, Social Representations of War, and Willingness to Fight. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 43, 60–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bobowik, M., Páez, D., Liu, J. H., Espinosa, A., Techio, E., Zubieta, E., & Cabecinhas, R. (2010). Psychosocial Bases of a “Culture of War”: Beliefs About History, the Meaning of Second World War and Willingness to Fight in Portuguese and Spanish Speaking Cultures. Revista de Psicología, 28, 111–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braithwaite, V. A., & Scott, W. A. (1991). Values. In J. P. Robinson, P. R. Shaver, & L. S. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measures of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 661–753). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bujarin, N. (1974/1925). Teoría del materialismo histórico [Historical Materialism: A System of Sociology]. Madrid: Siglo XXI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carretero, M. (2009). Identidad nacional y enseñanza de textos históricos: una hipótesis explicativa [National Identity and History Textbooks: Explicative Hypothesis]. Seminario Internacional: Textos escolares de historia y ciencias sociales [International Seminar: History Textbooks and Social Sciences] (pp. 70–77). Santiago de Chile: Ministerio de Educación de Chile.

    Google Scholar 

  • Candau, J. (2005). Anthropologie de la Mémoire [Anthropology of Memory]. Paris: Armand Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delacroix, C., Dosse, F., Garcia, P., & Offendstat, N. (Eds.). (2010). Historiographies (Vol. I & II). Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emelyanova, T. (2002). Les Représentations Sociales des événements historiques: le cas de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale [Social Representations of Historical Events: The Case of the Second World War]. In S. Laurens & N. Roussiau (Eds.), La mémoire Sociale (pp. 259–268). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fontana, J. (2000). La Historia de los Hombres [Men’s History]. Barcelona: Critica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster, S. (2012). Re-thinking History Textbooks in a Globalized World. In M. Carretero, M. Asensio, & M. Rodríguez-Moneo (Eds.), History Education and the Construction of National Identities (pp. 49–62). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glowsky, D., Ellermann, H., Kromeier, K., & Andorfer, V. (2008). How Global are Our Memories? An Empirical Approach Using an Online Survey. Comparativ, 2, 99–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golec de Zavala, A., Cichocka, A., Eidelson, R., & Jayawickreme, N. (2009). Collective Narcissism and Its Social Consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 1074–1096.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grever, M. (2012). Dilemmas of Common and Plural History: Reflections on History Education and Heritage in a Globalizing World. In M. Carretero, M. Asensio, & M. Rodríguez-Moneo (Eds.), History Education and the Construction of National Identities (pp. 93–108). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilton, D. J., & Liu, J. H. (2008). Culture and Inter-Group Relations. The Role of Social Representations of History. In R. Sorrentino & S. Yamaguchi (Eds.), The Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: The Cultural Context (pp. 343–368). New York: Guilford.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hobsbawm, E. (1995). Historia del siglo XX [Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991]. Barcelona: Crítica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobsbawm, E. (1997). On History. New York: New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iggers, G. G., Wang, Q. E., & Mukherjee, M. (2008). A Global History of Modern Historiography. InHarlow, England. New York: Pearson Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inglehart, R., Basañez, M., Diez-Medrano, J., Halman, L., & Luijkx, R. (2004). Human Beliefs and Values. Mexico: Siglo XXI Editores.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, S. (2005). Speaking of Values: The Framing of American Politics. The Forum, 3, Article 7, http://www.bepress.com/forum/vol3/iss3/art7

  • Jodelet, D. (2006). Representations Sociales [Social Representations]. In P. Castel & S. Mesure (Eds.), Dictionnaire des Sciences Humaines (pp. 1003–1005). Paris: PUF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jodelet, D. (2011). Contributions from the Social Representations Approach to the Field of Education. Espacios en Blanco—Serie indagaciones, 21, 133–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kus, L. (2013). Contextual Influences on Subjective Well-Being of Young Ethnic Minority Russians in Estonia. In R. Dimitrova (Ed.), Global Perspectives on Well-Being in Immigrant Families, Advances in Immigrant Family Research (pp. 235–258). New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-9129-3_13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson, J., & Lizardo. (2007). Generations, Identities, and the Collective Memory of Che Guevara. Sociological Forum, 22, 425–451. doi:10.1111/j.1573-7861.2007.00045.x.

  • Laurens, S. (2002). La nostalgie dans l’elaboration des souvenirs [The nostagy in the elaboration of remembrances]. In S. Laurens & N. Roussiau (Eds.), La mémoire Sociale (pp. 259–268). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lautier, N. (2001). Psychosociologie de l’éducation. Regard sur la situation d’enseignement. [Psychology of Education: Looking at the Situation of teaching]. Paris: Armand Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Layard, R. (2005). La Felicidad [Happiness]. Madrid: Taurus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. H., Goldstein-Hawes, R., Hilton, D. J., Huang, L. L., Gastardo-Conaco, C., Dresler-Hawke, et al. (2005). Social Representations of Events and People in World History Across Twelve Cultures. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 36, 171–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. H., & László, J. (2007). A Narrative Theory of History and Identity: Social Identity, Society and the Individual. In G. Moloney & I. Walker (Eds.), Social Representations and Identity: Content, Process and Power (pp. 85–107). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. H., Páez, D., Slawuta, P., et al. (2009). Representing World History in the 21st Century: The Impact of 9–11, the Iraq War, and the Nation-State on Dynamics of Collective Remembering. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40(4), 667–692.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lopez, C., & Carretero, M. (2012). Commentary: Identity Construction and the Goals of History Education. In M. Carretero, M. Asensio, & M. Rodríguez-Moneo (Eds.), History Education and the Construction of National Identities (pp. 93–108). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moscovici, S. (1976). La psychanalyse, son image et son public [Psychoanalysis: Its image and its public]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moscovici, S. (1985). L’Age des Foules. Un traité historique de psychologie des masses [The Age of the Crowd: A Historical Treatise on Mass Psychology]. Bruxelles: Les Éditions Complexe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neal, A. G. (2005). National Trauma and Collective Memory (Second ed.). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Needham, J. (1966). Time and Knowledge in China and the West. In J. T. Fraser (Ed.), The Voices of Time (pp. 92–135). New York: George Braziller.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, R. E. (2003). The Geography of Thought. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ornauer, H., Wiberg, H., Sicinski, A., & Galtung, J. (Eds.). (1976). Images of the World in the Year 2000: A Comparative Ten Nation Study. Atlantic Highland, NJ: Humanities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moller, S. (2012). Are Family Recollections and Obstacle to History Education? In M. Carretero, M. Asensio, & M. Rodríguez-Moneo (Eds.), History Education and the Construction of National Identities (pp. 281–296). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Páez, D., Bobowik, M., Liu, J. H., & Basabe, N. (2016). Shared Beliefs About World History and Cultural Context: A Theoretical Review and a Collective-Level Analysis. In C. Stone & L. Bietti (Eds.), Contextualizing Human Memory: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding How Individuals and Groups Remember the Past (pp. 102–123). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Páez, D., & Liu, J. H. (2012). Collective Memory of Conflicts. In D. Bar-Tal (Ed.), Intergroup Conflicts and their Resolution: Social Psychological Perspectives, Frontiers of Social Psychology Series. New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Páez, D., Liu, J. H., Techio, E., Slawuta, P., Zlobina, A., & Cabecinhas, R. (2008). Remembering World War II and Willingness to Fight: Sociocultural Factors in the Social Representation of Historical Warfare Across 22 Societies. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 39(4), 373–401.

    Google Scholar 

  • Páez, D., Liu, J. H., Techio, E., Slawuta, P., Zlobina, A., & Cabecinhas, R. (2008). Remembering World War II and Willingness to Fight: Sociocultural Factors in the Social Representation of Historical Warfare Across 22 Societies. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 39(4), 373–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pennebaker, J. W., Páez, D., & Deschamps, J. C. (2006). The Social Psychology of History: Defining the Most Important Events of the Last 10,100, and 1000 years. Psicología Política, 32, 15–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennebaker, J. W., Páez, D., & Rimé, B. (1997). Collective Memory of Political Events. Mahaw, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perez-Siller, A. (Ed.). (1995). La Decouverte de l’Amérique [The Discovery of America]. Paris: L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pingel, F. (2000). The European Home: Representations of 20th Century Europe in History Textbooks. Germany: The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuman, H., Belli, R. F., & Bischoping, K. (1997). The Generational Basis of Historical Knowledge. In J. W. Pennebaker, D. Paez, & B. Rimé (Eds.), Collective Memory of Political Events: Social Psychological Perspectives (pp. 47–77). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuman, H., & Rodgers, W. L. (2004). Cohorts, Chronology, and Collective Memories. Public Opinion Quarterly, 68, 217–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schuman, H., Schwartz, B., & d’Arcy, H. (2005). Elite Revisionists and Popular Beliefs: Cristopher Columbus, Hero or Vilain? Public Opinion Quaterly, 69, 2–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J., & Zac, L. (1993). Collective Memories in Britain and the United States. Public Opinion Quarterly, 57, 315–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seixas, P. (2012). Indigenous Historical Consciousness: An Oxymoron or a Dialogue. In M. Carretero, M. Asensio, & M. Rodríguez-Moneo (Eds.), History Education and the Construction of National Identities (pp. 125–138). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smeekes, A., Verkuyten, M., & Poppe, E. (2011). Mobilising Opposition Towards Muslim Immigrants: National Identification and the Representation of National History. British Journal of Social Psychology, 50, 265–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, S. (1991). Asymmetrical Effects of Positive and Negative Events: The Mobilization-Minimization Hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 67–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Techio, E., Bobowik, M., Páez, D., Cabecinhas, R., Liu, J., Zubieta, E., & Espinosa, A. (2010). Social Representations of History, Wars and Politics in Latin America, Europe and Africa. Revista de Psicología Social, 25(1), 11–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tutiaux-Guillon, N. (2012). A Traditional Frame for Global History: The Narrative of Modernity in French Secondary School. In M. Carretero, M. Asensio, & M. Rodríguez-Moneo (Eds.), History Education and the Construction of National Identities (pp. 109–124). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Borries, B. (1995). Le Siécle des Decouvertes dans les livres scolaires de langue allemande [The Century of Discoveries in Textbooks of German Language]. In A. Perez-Siller (Ed.), La Decouverte de l’Amérique [The Discovery of America] (pp. 11–133). Paris: L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wertsch, J. V. (2002). Voices of Collective Remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zeruvabel, E. (2003). Times Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, University of the Basque Country, Donostia, Spain

    Darío Páez & Magdalena Bobowik

  2. Psychology Department, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    James Liu

Authors
  1. Darío Páez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Magdalena Bobowik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. James Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Campus de Cantoblanco, Autónoma University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Mario Carretero

  2. Ruhr Universitat Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Stefan Berger

  3. Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Maria Grever

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Páez, D., Bobowik, M., Liu, J. (2017). Social Representations of the Past and Competences in History Education. In: Carretero, M., Berger, S., Grever, M. (eds) Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52908-4_26

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52908-4_26

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-52907-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52908-4

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation