Past Times - Talking and Teaching History

In this episode we are joined by Barry van Driel, President of the International Association for Intercultural Education and Juraj Varga, EuroClio Board Member and Chairman of the Centre for Education and Innovations (CEDIN) , to talk about place-based learning. Why and how do we do it? Both Barry and Juraj are involved in EuroClio projects taking history outside of the classroom - which was also...

We speak with Russian historian, history teacher, activist and EuroClio ‘Ambassador’ Tamara Eidelman about authoritarianism and totalitarianism. Having left Moscow for Lisbon in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tamara continues to run her wildly popular YouTube channel on Russian and World History from aboard. Tamara shares her thoughts on teaching about totalitarianism, her experi...

We are joined by Claire Holliss , head of history at Reigate College in the UK and author of the blog Fresh Alarums , to talk about gender and sexuality in the history classroom. We discuss her approaches to teaching queer history, gender and sexuality, including the difficult issue of terminology. Discover more on the topic with Claire's blog (including a set of teacher's primers) and EuroClio's...

We are joined by historian and sociologist Katalin Morgan to talk about stereotypes and prejudices in history education sharing her experiences living and working in Hungary, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands. How are stereotypes formed, how do we recognise them and how do we as history educators counteract prejudices commonly found in both textbooks and the classroom?

In this episode we speak with Tina van der Vlies, Assistant Professor of History at Erasmus University Rotterdam, about the purposes of history education. Prof. van der Vlies has recently received a grant for her research project 'Why school history matters: public discourses on the purposes of history education, 1920 – 2020'. Tying in with our 2022 Annual Conference topic "What is history for?" ,...

In June 2020 the statue of Edward Colston, a 17th Century slave trader, was pushed into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest leading to global media attention. The statue was later recovered by the Bristol city council and displayed at a local museum. We speak with Bristol-based history teacher Richard Kennett about his recent book on the Bristol slave trade, how the controversy ove...

We speak with Felisa Tibbitts (@FelisaTibbitts), Chair in Human Rights Education at Utrecht University and Lecturer at Columbia University's Teacher College about democracy and history education. How do we as teachers and educators deal with hate speech and extremist viewpoints in the classroom? How do we get students to understand the fragility of democracy? And what role do teachers play as 'age...

We are joined by two teachers, Christoph Schiebold from the International Montessori School in Brussels and Riitta Mikkola from Karakallio School in Espoo, Finland, to talk assessment: How do we do it? Formative? Summative? What are the challenges? And from which age should we grade? Our episode is part of a larger thematic focus on assessment and linked to our webinar series on the topic. Want mo...

We speak with Prof. María Emma Wills Obregón, based in Bogotá, about the role of history education in tackling recent memories of conflict and the reconciliation process in Colombia. Prof. Wills was part of a team that developed a toolkit with methodologies and lessons for debating the historic memory of the conflict with students. What are the pedagogical legacies of the conflict? What advice can...

We discover the potential of 'the beautiful game' in education. We speak with two teachers, Enrico Cavalieri in Italy and Hellen Janssen in the Netherlands, about their experiences teaching history through the lens of football. Enrico talks about his lesson plan, exploring the rise of fascism in Europe, migration, World War II and the Shoah, with the life story of Jewish-Hungarian football coach Á...

In this episode, we speak with history teacher Dr. Amaia Lamikiz and Prof. Michalinos Zembylas on the place and role of emotions in history education. Should we encourage emotions as a tool for teaching or are they "in the way", clouding the vision of both teacher and student? What strategies are available for teachers when emotions do arise? 

We speak with Prof. Arthur Chapman and Dr. Maria K. Georgiou about the powers of historical knowledge, highlighting the recent book edited by Prof. Chapman: "Knowing History in Schools: Powerful knowledge and the powers of knowledge" . The book includes a chapter co-authored by our two guests and we speak with both about its key concepts, the social justice potential of history education and how t...

We discuss the concept of historical canons with EuroClio founder Joke van der Leeuw-Roord and Prof. Karel van Nieuwenhuyse of the KU Leuven. As the Dutch canon has recently been revised and a canon for Flanders is in the works, we look at the controversies surrounding both canons and ask ourselves what role canons can have in history education - if at all! What are their shortcomings? How do they...

We discuss the role of textbooks in history education with a critical reflection on why need them and how we should use them. What makes a good textbook and how can we compliment our teaching with other sources? Podcast hosts Maayke de Vries and Katria Tomko are joined by Dr. Maren Tribukait from the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig (Germany) and Ann-Laure...

We discuss persecution and censorship, the importance of history and history education in safeguarding and promoting democratic values and ask ourselves why historians are so dangerous to so many different regimes. We highlight the work of Prof. Antoon de Baets , founder of the Network of Concerned Historians , and zoom in on the recent and worrying developments for history education in Brazil und...

Our interview with Dr Borunda contained so much interesting insights that we decided to publish it as a bonus episode. In this part of the  interview, Dr Borunda mentions how ethnic studies is on the rise in  the US, which aims to include indigenous knowledge in the curriculum, and challenges the eurocentric perception of knowledge. In the episode, Dr Borunda refers to the website Califo...

In this episode we look at how historic events are remembered, celebrated and commemorated. We explore the topic through the lens of the Mayflower 400 events taking place in the Netherlands, the UK and the US this year and commemorating the arrival of the first settlers to the New England colonies from England by way of Leiden in The Netherlands. We speak with Dr Rose Borunda (author of the book W...

In this episode we talk with Prof. Sam Wineburg (Twitter: @samwineburg), who is head of the Stanford History Education Group. In our episode we focus on “civic online reasoning”, thus skills that everyone should be familiar with in order to find reliable sources on the internet. Professor Wineburg emphasizes the role of history and history educators in providing young people with the skills needed...