Department of History Education

 

Teaching

Our courses follow the principle of theory-practice interaction where students learn about current research approaches in History Education and work on research-oriented topics in seminars. Furthermore, internships prepare students to apply the knowledge they have acquired during their studies in school and through non-school settings in order to promote historical thinking. This includes the classroom itself as well as museums or memorial sites.

Research

Our current research interests include:

1. Inclusive History Education

Inclusion is a central topic in schools, museums and memorial sites. Among other things, we are concerned with the question of how historical learning can be understood as participation in historical culture in a diverse society. Therefore, we also explore the effectiveness of methods of teaching history to students with special educational needs.

2. Disability History

The history of people with disabilities has received increasing attention in recent years. We explore the extent to which disability can be considered as a category of historical thinking.

3. Public History and Historical Culture

The teaching of history not only takes place in settings such as schools or universities, but also in public spaces such as museums or memorial sites. Therefore, we do research on how historical knowledge can be presented to the public in an inclusive way.

4. Historical Learning and Material Culture

Ever since the establishment of the "New Materialism", the meaning of objects for human societies is renegotiated. The potential of this New Materialism for historical studies and history didactics has so far only been rudimentarily explored. In the research focus, theoretical and empirical questions are raised about the significance of things and objects for historical thinking and learning.

5. Digitality and Historical Learning

Critical data literacy (assessment of sources and information in digital media), methods of digital humanities, and the promotion of social participation by means of participation-oriented digital tools represent a current challenge for historical learning. This is the reason why we develop and evaluate digital learning scenarios.

6. Professionalization of history teachers

In recent years, research on professionalization processes of prospective history teachers has also become a focus of history education. In particular, research on the practical phases during studies is the subject of various research projects within our department.

7. Historical Competencies

The acquisition of competencies is at the center of teaching history in Germany. Nevertheless, empirical research on historical competencies and partial competencies is still in its infancy. Our department tries to fill this void with research on the historical judgment and questioning competence of students.

PhD Projects

An overview of our ongoing PhD projects can be found here here.

Team

An overview of our team can be found here here.