Per-Arne Karlsson:

Do we have a Curriculum? Fragmentation or a Learning Trajectory in History?

Education of History-teachers at Stockholm University

The very idea of a Curriculum for Education of History-teachers seems to be remote. Working for twenty years in Education of Teachers I’ve so far never come across anything like a plan for developing the skills and knowledge of being a History-teacher. For the pupils in school we have been producing plans for learning the subject for more than a century. But what do the teachers of History need to know?

The progress in research of Teaching and Learning History has produced a paradox and a challenge for History-Teachers: the traditional image of an overloaded History-curriculum of 1st order concepts has been supplemented with a large amount of 2nd order concepts and expected learning outcomes in terms of procedural knowledge. Will the History-teachers master all these concepts or will they produce an overloaded education and fragmentation?

I want to discuss the concept of a Learning Trajectory to describe the expected learning outcomes in History. The concept present, I mean, a new way of understanding Teaching and Learning History as a coherent and progressive process – and for designing a Curriculum for Education of History-Teachers.