Eco was right. Ironical understanding as a goal

 

 

English

Umberto Eco passed away recently, on 19 February, 2016. His contributions to philosophy and semiology, as well as his literary productions, have played a very influential role in our contemporary culture. On this occasion, his ideas about the importance of irony, which had a key role in his famous novel, Il nome della Rosa, are analyzed in relation to current problems in history education. This note intends, also, to be a modest homage to his deep and extensive work on the development of both culture and values.

National Narratives and Identities

History education powerfully influences the construction of national identities through so-called myths of origin that are taught and then subsequently appropriated by students, and which play an important role in most educational systems and practices. Therefore, researchers today generally agree that the history curricula from diverse countries are still full of nationalist contents, which do not coincide with historiographical research on nations and their origins.

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Quelle: http://public-history-weekly.oldenbourg-verlag.de/4-2016-26/eco-was-right-ironical-understanding-as-a-goal/

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Back to Nationalism. No Future for History?

 

English

 

Currently, throughout Europe, various forms of nationalism are sprouting, as if decades of peaceful European cooperation had never existed. History education is looking on helplessly. Instead of providing students with the ability to orient to a future that is historically undefined, which is neither good nor bad, educational ministries are succumbing either to national hullaballoo (the UK and the Netherlands) or to curricular cluelessness (Switzerland, Germany). The future is not regarded as an opportunity for the present but, instead, almost exclusively as a threat. In other words: since the reorganization of Europe into a community of states in 1989, history education has lost its future. The past is used instrumentally for the present or is regarded only for its own sake.



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Quelle: http://public-history-weekly.oldenbourg-verlag.de/4-2016-5/back-to-nationalism/

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