Seminar: How and why teach contemporary history? The case of a research textbook for 9th grade of primary school
In 2022, the Fraus publishing house published a research history textbook Soudobé dějiny pro 9. třídu ZŠ [Contemporary History for the 9th grade of primary school]. The textbook, which purposefully leaves the conventions of the genre, was created by a team of didacticians from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in cooperation with advisors from the historical and teaching community. The set of three books and the HistoryLab digital workshop has received international acclaim, but has also faced harsh criticism in the Czech Republic. The textbook is now in its second year of use in schools. In this seminar, we will attempt a comprehensive reflection on this effort to change the teaching of history, taking into account not only the approach of the author team, but also the independent perspective of a historian of contemporary history, a teacher and a history didactician. The story of the research textbook opens up a number of questions. How and why change the teaching of contemporary history? What is the contribution of a research approach to the teaching of history? Why has the textbook become the subject of controversy and what do these debates reveal? How does the new textbook work in practice?
Main speakers: Kamil Činátl and Václav Sixta (Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
Comments: Adéla Gjuričová (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences), Tamara Nováková (Gymnázium Říčany), Václav Kaška (Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University)
The seminar will be held in Czech.
Please note that an audio recording will be made of the seminar, which will be available on the Institute’s website and Spotify.