We speak with Prof. Arthur Chapman and Dr. Maria K. Georgiou about the powers of historical knowledge, highlighting the recent book edited by Prof. Chapman: "Knowing History in Schools: Powerful knowledge and the powers of knowledge". The book includes a chapter co-authored by our two guests and we speak with both about its key concepts, the social justice potential of history education and how the ideas of powerful knowledge can make its way into classroom practice. 

The book, published by UCL Press, is open access and is free to download on uclpress.co.uk. 

We discuss the concept of historical canons with EuroClio founder Joke van der Leeuw-Roord and Prof. Karel van Nieuwenhuyse of the KU Leuven. As the Dutch canon has recently been revised and a canon for Flanders is in the works, we look at the controversies surrounding both canons and ask ourselves what role canons can have in history education - if at all! What are their shortcomings? How do they relate to national curricula? What are the implications for history teachers?

We discuss the role of textbooks in history education with a critical reflection on why need them and how we should use them. What makes a good textbook and how can we compliment our teaching with other sources? Podcast hosts Maayke de Vries and Katria Tomko are joined by Dr. Maren Tribukait from the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig (Germany) and Ann-Laure Liéval, teacher at Lycee Fenelon in Lille and teacher trainer at Sciences Po Lille (France). 

We discuss persecution and censorship, the importance of history and history education in safeguarding and promoting democratic values and ask ourselves why historians are so dangerous to so many different regimes. We highlight the work of Prof. Antoon de Baets, founder of the Network of Concerned Historians , and zoom in on the recent and worrying developments for history education in Brazil under President Jair Bolsonaro with Prof. Arthur Ávila. 

Consult the latest (2020) report of the Network of Concerned Historians here and join their latest campaigns here. 

Our interview with Dr Borunda contained so much interesting insights that we decided to publish it as a bonus episode. In this part of the  interview, Dr Borunda mentions how ethnic studies is on the rise in  the US, which aims to include indigenous knowledge in the curriculum, and challenges the eurocentric perception of knowledge. In the episode, Dr Borunda refers to the website California Indian History Curriculum, which provides educators with a counter-narrative on the history of the Americas: https://www.csus.edu/college/education/engagement/indian-curriculum.html

In this episode we look at how historic events are remembered, celebrated and commemorated. We explore the topic through the lens of the Mayflower 400 events taking place in the Netherlands, the UK and the US this year and commemorating the arrival of the first settlers to the New England colonies from England by way of Leiden in The Netherlands. We speak with Dr Rose Borunda (author of the book What is the Color of your Heart: A Humanist Approach to Diversity”) from Sacremento State University, with Leiden University lecturer Dr Eduard van de Bilt and with Leiden400 coordinator Jonathan Even-Zohar, on counternarratives, the history of remembrance and practical tips for how educators can commemorate contested topics or events in the classroom.

In this episode we talk with Prof. Sam Wineburg (Twitter: @samwineburg), who is head of the Stanford History Education Group. In our episode we focus on “civic online reasoning”, thus skills that everyone should be familiar with in order to find reliable sources on the internet. Professor Wineburg emphasizes the role of history and history educators in providing young people with the skills needed to maneuver a time of mass confusion.