History teaching at primary level and the construction of a national narrative. A study of exams and textbooks in Spain

The aim of this paper is to analyze History teaching at primary school level in Spain through daily class work (textbook activities) and the exams taken by pupils. Over 1,000 exam questions and almost 3,000 textbook activities by three publishers were analyzed in total, in six schools. The resulting...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Gómez Carrasco, Cosme J.; Rodríguez Pérez, Raimundo A.; Miralles Martínez, Pedro
Format: Article
Status:Published version
Publication date:2015
Country:México
Institution:UNAM
Repository:Perfiles Educativos
Language:Spanish
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/53160
Online Access:https://perfileseducativos.unam.mx/iisue_pe/index.php/perfiles/article/view/53160
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:History teaching
Identity
Textbooks
Assessment
Exams
Enseñanza de la Historia
Identidad
Libros de texto
Evaluación
Exámenes
Description
Summary:The aim of this paper is to analyze History teaching at primary school level in Spain through daily class work (textbook activities) and the exams taken by pupils. Over 1,000 exam questions and almost 3,000 textbook activities by three publishers were analyzed in total, in six schools. The resulting information was entered into an Access database for quantitative analysis (with subsequent encoding using the SPSS statistics package), and qualitative analysis based on textual analysis. The insistence observed in most exams and textbooks on particular historical content instills in students’ knowledge that is often biased, and mainly based on memorizing facts, concepts, and descriptions.