The historical consciousness of students-prospective teachers: Greek and Portuguese aspects in the context of the current economic crisis

Abstract

This paper analyses seventy-eight written questionnaires of university students, prospective teachers in Greece (Ioannina) and Portugal (UMinho), in 2016. Students were asked first to narrate the Greek and the Portuguese state’s history respectively, and second to choose between ‘lines of development’ indicating decline and progress in time. The study aimed to identify students’ patterns of historical consciousness in the context of the current economic crisis situation and a preliminary analysis of the data suggests the prevalence of the ‘traditional’ type of Rüsen’s typology. The present study is informed by previous research in young people historical consciousness also in the initial training requirements of history teachers: if historical education aims at historical consciousness (Rüsen, 1987) and ‘history didacticians are something like experts of consciousness’ (Von Borries, 2005) history teachers own historical sense making while in situation of crisis, ought to be important.