DISCOURSES ON SCHOOL HISTORY
| Title | ΔΙΑΛΟΓΟΙ ΓΙΑ ΤΗ ΣΧΟΛΙΚΗ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ / DISCOURSES ON SCHOOL HISTORY |
| Code | ΕΠΜ7 |
| Faculty | Education |
| School | Primary Education |
| Cycle / Level | 1st / Undergraduate |
| Teaching Period | Winter/Spring |
| Coordinator | Maria Mavrommati |
| Common | No |
| Status | Active |
| Course ID | 600024071 |
Programme of Study: PPS Tmīmatos Dīmotikīs Ekpaídeusīs Merikīs Foítīsīs (2026-sīmera)
Registered students: 0
| Orientation | Attendance Type | Semester | Year | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KORMOS | Elective Courses | 3 | 2 | 5 |
Programme of Study: PPS Tmīmatos Dīmotikīs Ekpaídeusīs (2024-sīmera)
Registered students: 5
| Orientation | Attendance Type | Semester | Year | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KORMOS | Elective Courses | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Academic Year | 2025 – 2026 |
| Class Period | Winter |
| Faculty Instructors | |
| Weekly Hours | 3 |
| Total Hours | 39 |
| Class ID | 600274049
|
Course Type 2021
General Foundation
Course Type 2016-2020
- General Knowledge
- Skills Development
Course Type 2011-2015
General Foundation
Mode of Delivery
- Face to face
Digital Course Content
- e-Study Guide https://qa.auth.gr/en/class/1/600274049
- eLearning (Moodle): https://elearning.auth.gr/course/view.php?id=10997
Erasmus
The course is also offered to exchange programme students.
Language of Instruction
- Greek (Instruction, Examination)
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
• Understand the public nature of history education and recognize school history as a dynamic field of identity and cultural values negotiation, and ideological conflicts.
• Identify the multiple functions and uses of history in school (cognitive, political, symbolic), as well as their effects on how students' historical consciousness is shaped.
• Analyze, from a historical and comparative perspective, critical moments of tension, controversy, or reform efforts in the teaching of history in Greece (e.g., the 2019 Curriculum, the Marasleian conflict, the cases of Kalokairinos, Stavrianos, Kokkinos, Repoussi).
• Interpret the sociopolitical and ideological conflicts that often accompany history education in Greece and identify the mechanisms shaping the public discourse surrounding it.
• Recognize and critically evaluate the interventions of public and political discourse in school history, supporting its autonomy as a scientific and educational field.
• Relate the Greek case to examples from other countries (such as the USA, UK, Japan, and European countries), identifying similarities, differences, and international trends in the organization of history education and in the public “history wars”.
• Assess stereotypical or binary interpretative frameworks and develop a reflective approach to the controversies surrounding history teaching.
General Competences
- Retrieve, analyse and synthesise data and information, with the use of necessary technologies
- Make decisions
- Work autonomously
- Work in teams
- Work in an interdisciplinary team
- Generate new research ideas
- Appreciate diversity and multiculturality
- Demonstrate social, professional and ethical commitment and sensitivity to gender issues
- Be critical and self-critical
- Advance free, creative and causative thinking
Course Content (Syllabus)
The course examines school history as a critical field of convergence and tension between the historical culture of society, institutional educational policies, and the public management of the past. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the public nature of history education and on studying the ways in which the school subject of History is involved in the formation of collective memory and national identity, in connection with academic and public history.
Through characteristic examples of public controversies (such as the Marasleian conflict, the cases of Kalokairinos, Stavrianos, Kokkinos, Repousi, and the withdrawal of the 2019 curriculum), the course analyzes the processes of the politicization of history, which often highlight the school as a symbolic battleground between competing narratives of the past.
The course situates the discussion within theoretical frameworks drawn from public history studies and memory theory, exploring how collective traumas, heroic narratives, and the "silences" of the past are included in (or excluded from) school textbooks. At the same time, it comparatively examines the Greek experience in relation to international examples (USA, UK, European countries, Japan), identifying trends, similarities, and differences in the "history wars" and in the management of historical memory in different educational contexts.
Students are encouraged to develop critical and reflective thinking, to move beyond stereotypical frameworks, and to conceive the teaching of history as a pedagogical and cultural practice with a strong public impact.
Keywords
history education, school history, debates on textbook controversies, public uses of history
Educational Material Types
- Notes
- Slide presentations
- Multimedia
- Book
Use of Information and Communication Technologies
Use of ICT
- Use of ICT in Course Teaching
- Use of ICT in Communication with Students
- Use of ICT in Student Assessment
Description
ICT are utilized at all stages of the course. Lectures are delivered using presentation software, audiovisual material, audio files/podcasts, websites, historical content databases, etc. Communication with students outside the classroom takes place via email, the course’s page on the eLearning platform, video conferencing tools such as Zoom, and more. Finally, students have access to lecture notes and other available bibliography through the course page on the eLearning platform.
Course Organization
| Activities | Workload | ECTS | Individual | Teamwork | Erasmus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures | 39 | ||||
| Reading Assigment | 111 | ||||
| Total | 150 |
Student Assessment
Description
Written exams
Student Assessment methods
- Written Exam with Short Answer Questions (Summative)
- Written Exam with Extended Answer Questions (Summative)
- Written Assignment (Summative)
- Oral Exams (Summative)
- Performance / Staging (Summative)
- Written Exam with Problem Solving (Summative)
Bibliography
Course Bibliography (Eudoxus)
Αθανασιάδης, Χ. (2015). Τα αποσυρθέντα βιβλία. Αθήνα: Αλεξάνδρεια.
Additional bibliography for study
1. Carretero M. (2011), Constructing Patriotism: Teaching History and Memories in Global Worlds, Charlotte, NC: IAP
2. Carretero, M., Asensio, M., and Rodríguez-Moneo, M. (eds.) (2013). History education and the construction of national identities. Charlotte, NC: IAP Information Age Publishing.
3. Carretero, Μ. Berger, S. & Grever, M. (2017). Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education, Palgrave MacMillan.
4. Chapman, A. (2024). Nationalising the curriculum 1991–2013: The English National Curriculum as a roman national. Passato e Presente, XLII (123), 90-113. 10.3280/PASS2024-123006
5. Gatsotis, P. (2023). Public debates, public history, and school history curricula: The Greek case. International Public History, 6 (1), 3–14.
6. Grever, M. and Stuurman, S. (2007) Beyond the Canon: History for the Twenty-First Century. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1057/9780230599246.
7. Liakos, A. (2008/09) ‘History wars: Notes from the field’. In: History Teaching in the Crossfire of Political Interests: Yearbook of the International Society for the Didactics of History, 2008/09, pp. 71f.
8. Macintyre S. & Clark A. (eds) (2004), The History Wars, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press
9. Nakou I. & Barca I. (eds.) (2010), Contemporary Public Debates Over History Education, Charlotte N.C.: Information Age Publishing.
10. Nash G. (2000), History on trial, New York: Vintage Books.
11. Nichols J. (2006), School History across cultures. International debates and perspectives, UK: Cambridge University Press.
12. Repoussi M. (2009), «Common trends in Contemporary Debates on History Education", in Popp S. (ed.), Yearbook of International Society for History Didactics 2008/2009, p. 75-81
13. Repoussi M. (2009), «La vie scolaire de l´histoire en Grèce: enjeux, changements, contradictions, controverses, XIXe-XXe siècle», Raisons, Comparaisons, Educations, la revue française d'éducation comparée, n. 4.
14. Sakka, V. and Brentanou, K. (2012) Teaching history in Greek schools: Adventures of a "fresh" history curriculum for compulsory education: Another lost chance?. The 13th International Conference of ISSEI International Society for the Study of European Ideas in cooperation with the University of Cyprus. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/4441414/ (Accessed: 25 November 2024).
15. Symcox, L. and Wilschut, A. (eds.) (2009). National History Standards: The Problem of the Canon and the Future of Teaching History. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishers
16. Tayler, Tony & Guyver, Robert (eds.) (2012), History Wars and the Classroom, Global Perspectives, Charlotte N.C.: Information Age Publishing.
17. Van Nieuwenhuyse, K. (2018) ‘Torn between patriotic, civic and disciplinary aspirations: Evolving faces of Belgian and Flemish history education, from 1830 to the future’, Sprawy Narodowościowe. Seria nowa, 2018(50). doi: 10.11649/sn.1634.
18. Watson, M. (2020). Michael Gove’s war on professional historical expertise: conservative curriculum reform, extreme whig history and the place of imperial heroes in modern multicultural Britain, British Politics, 15, 271–290 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-019-00118-3
19. Λιάκος, Α. (2011). Οι πόλεμοι της ιστορίας: Σημειώσεις επί του πεδίου. Στο Κ. Παπαδημητρίου & Σ. Σεφεριάδης (Επιμ.), Αθέατες όψεις της ιστορίας: Κείμενα αφιερωμένα στον Γιάνη Γιανουλόπουλο (σσ. 93–144). Αθήνα: Ασίνη.
20. Μαυρομμάτη, Μ. (2025). Πολιτικές Μνήμης και Πόλεμοι Ιστορίας: Η περίπτωση της Αγγλίας (2010-2014), Νέα Παιδεία- Γλώσσα (υπό δημοσίευση).
21. Ρεπούση Μ. (2012), Τα Μαρασλειακά, 1925-1927, Αθήνα: Πόλις
Λιάκος, Α. (2007). Πώς το παρελθόν γίνεται ιστορία. Αθήνα: Πόλις.
Last Update
09-09-2025
