TITLE:
The Education of History Teachers in Europe—A Comparative Study. First Results of the “Civic and History Education Study”
AUTHORS:
Alois Ecker
KEYWORDS:
Teacher Education, Initial Teacher Training, History Teachers, Historio-Political Education, Citizenship Education, Social Studies, Historical Consciousness, Historical Culture, Didactics of History
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.9 No.10,
August
30,
2018
ABSTRACT: The“Civic and History Education Study”is the first comprehensivestudy in Europe to describe and analyse the formation of school teachersof the historio-political subjects. Based on a systemic and organizational approach, between 2010 and 2013 more than 46 institutions of 33 countries in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) have been investigated and compared on the existing full study programs in initial teacher education for school subjects“History”,“Civic/Citizenship Education”,“Politics”,“Social Studies”and“Cultural Studies”.The nature and quality of the education and training that teachers of these subjects receive seems crucial for reflecting thesocial and political developments of lifein multicultural and diverse societies. History teachers and teachers of“Social Studies”or“Civic Education”are expected to contribute substantially to the formation of the socio-political identity of the future citizens of Europe. The pupils’competences for democratic citizenship, intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding and tolerance are expectedtobe developed during secondary school education. The central question of theproject-grouptherefore was: Are the teacher education programs conceptualized to provide the trainee teachers with the requested knowledge and skills for acting as these responsible educators of the future European citizens?This paper describes the structures of initial teacher education for the concerned subjects in the European countries:It gives information on the various types of teacher education institutions, the architecture of teacher training programs, the models of training, the length of studies, the relation between subject oriented and professional training, the forms of induction and the multifaceted forms of tutoring and mentoring.In the main part of the paper,crucialqualitative aspects in the formation of the historio-political competences of teachertraineeswill be introduced and compared.An analysis of the aims, the theoretical basement, the content as well asthe pedagogical/didacticalconceptsof curriculawill be given, and relevant aspects ofthe formation of methodological and didactical competencesof teacher trainees byacademic and professional training will be compared and analyzed.Special emphasis will be given to the formation of their communicative and cooperative skills and the formation of media literacy.