Historical narratives: how Portuguese students aged 10 and 15 make use of national history

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate how students make use of their knowledge about national history, while considering relevant perspectives in history education about the development of historical consciousness. A total of 103 students attending the sixth or the ninth grade in Portuguese schools were asked to ‘spontaneously’ write about the history of Portugal. This allowed the understanding of their historical literacy and the identification of the development of their historical consciousness. The data analysis was mainly based on a qualitative approach inspired by the grounded theory, carried out through a process of coding of the narrative elements in order to find meanings on conceptual trends. Generally, the results suggest the prevalence of similar schematic templates in the students’ narratives. At the same time, the research process highlighted two main categories: the assumption of a certain national identity and the understanding of intertemporal relations for personal orientation. Within the former, students either appear tied to fixed conceptions of the past, more often in the sixth grade, or to present a more historically balanced pattern, although still somewhat ethnocentric. In the latter, the idea of connecting the past and the present appears to be the overall trend, particularly in the ninth grade.