Baseline study

Abstract

In terms of deliverables, the baseline study aims to find out teachers’ views and practice in terms of the use of history magazines. ‘What questions are worth asking?’ about popular history magazines, and what sort of materials and activities based around popular history magazines would be helpful in developing the historical, critical and media literacy of young people? At the opening EHISTO seminar in Augsburg, it was decided to focus on two particular historical topics which were felt to be commonly represented in the history curricula of partner countries (and probably across the EU in general) and which were likely to be also represented in popular history magazines. The two topics chosen were a) the causes/outbreak of World War One, and b) Voyages of Discovery/Colonialism/Empire. These topics could be seen to represent a European ‘history crossroads’, in the sense that the topics are widely encountered, both in history classrooms and in ‘public history’ outside the school, through television, the internet, and in newspapers and magazines. Through a combination of questionnaires and interviews with history teachers in all five of the countries involved, the baseline study aimed to gain insight into the issues described above.