Teaching 20th Century European History

Produced for the Council of Europe project " Learning and teaching about the history of Europe in the 20th century", this book concentrates on the how rather than the what of teaching. Besides a study of selected themes and topics, it covers the teaching of sensitive issues, the reading of visual archives, analysing history on television and the Internet and assessing new technologies. Some of these new sources have not been made part of standard teacher training, yet they have a powerful role in the way young people perceive the past. The author is a Senior Research Fellow at Leirsinn Research Centre, University of Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute.

This publication contains the papers presented at the final conference of a Council of Europe project on teaching resources for 20th century European history, which was held in March 2001. The conference brought together distinguished historians and writers from across Europe to discuss a range of issues regarding the teaching of 20th century European history and to assess teaching resources which encourage historical critical analysis amongst teachers and students.

This publication is a teaching pack designed to meet the aims and objectives of the Council of Europe's project on 'Learning and teaching about the history of Europe in the 20th century'. The pack has been written for teachers of 14-18 year olds. It emphasises the integration of skills with knowledge and understanding, rather than the acquisition of knowledge in itself and focuses on the links between work, family, culture, war and politics. Topics proposed in the pack include how the image of women has been constructed socially through the media and how political systems have influenced women's private and social roles.

In the European construction, the information and communication technologies provide young people and teachers with tools and resources that can transform the history class. These technologies enable young people to conduct a transverse, plural reading of history by giving them access, on an equal footing with historians, to original documentary sources, transcultural interpretations, conflicting data and multiple perspectives.

This study is based upon a cross-section of secondary-school history textbooks from fourteen european countries, with differing traditions of educational literature: the Czech Republic, England and Wales, Finland, France, Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation and Spain. Examples from other countries are also discussed, in particular some of the Balkan countries, where the parallel process of building a national identity while also establishing a European one is taking place. (CoE website.)

This book explores the challenges of teaching European history in the 21st century and provides research-informed approaches to history teaching that combine civic education, historical consciousness, and the teaching of controversial social issues. With contributions from researchers across Europe, the book includes both theoretical and case study chapters. The first part of the book addresses issues such as globalization and teaching in an interconnected world, using multicultural and critical approaches, decolonizing education, and teaching uncomfortable narratives of the past. The second part of the book showcases thematic chapters dedicated to teaching intersecting topics in the European curriculum such as violence and armed conflict, social inequality, gender equality, the technological revolution, and religion. Ultimately, this volume promotes criticality, civic engagement, and reflection on social issues, thereby prompting methodological change in the teaching of history as we know it. It will appeal to researchers and students of history education, democratic education, and citizenship education, as well as teacher educators and trainee teachers in history. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Twentieth-Century Europe: A Brief History presents readers with a concise and accessible survey of the most significant themes and political events that shaped European history in the 20th and 21st centuries. Features updates that include a new chapter that reviews major political and economic trends since 1989 and an extensively revised chapter that emphasizes the intellectual and cultural history of Europe since World War II Organized into brief chapters that are suitable for traditional courses or for classes in non-traditional courses that allow for additional material selected by the professor Includes the addition of a variety of supplemental materials such as chronological timelines, maps, and illustrations