Interculturality in Heritage Education: challenges and contributions to History teaching

ABSTRACT

In History teaching, interdisciplinary curricular aspects related to the use of cultural heritage or the questioning of the progress of improvement acts on tolerance, respect for differences and cooperation among peoples require a reasoned and systematic reflection on students and teachers' conceptions in central areas for History Education, such as interculturality. In this research it was aimed at deepening, in an essentially qualitative approach, the understanding of how students and teachers make sense of heritage sources, and also of concepts related to historical consciousness, such as identity and heritage. We have analysed the conceptions of 7th and 10th graders of several schools in northern Portugal, dealing with heritage evidence, and how their teachers understand the use of heritage sources in teaching and learning History, given its relationship with interpretation as a process of making sense of the past. Different identity profiles emerged from data analysis depending on the pattern of thinking, from a local/national identity grounded on origins, i.e. exclusive, up to a more inclusive and European/global identity. The results of this study revealed possibilities of new educational approaches regarding the use of heritage as historical evidence, and contributing to the development of historical and heritage consciousness.

Keywords:
History and Heritage Education; historical consciousness; identity; interculturality.