This Guide was developed by a team of scholars and practitioners coming from different disciplinary backgrounds, who combined their disciplines (history teaching, psychology, conflict studies, etc.). It aims to offer some practical tools: models, strategies and guidance for teachers who face certain challenges when opening the discussion about difficult aspects of the troubled past and its current uses. In short, this Guide is for “risk-takers” who want to teach about the roots of these controversies, but would still like to mitigate negative reactions within the classroom. The Guide contains a Glossary of the most important concepts and words used, and a Further Reading list. The models, strategies, and guidance in this guide can serve as resources for teachers facilitating lessons about difficult aspects of the recent past, but they can also be used in pre-service and in-service teacher training.

  • The use of popular games to develop basic citizenship competences
  • Building Technological Bridges with History: the use of digital learning platforms to promote tailored History Education
  • Feeling the Museum: putting oneself in the shoes of students with special needs to understand how to provide the best didactic experience possible
  • Students as Mediators of Conflicts
  • Find out what New Students Bring to the Classroom

    As a response to an increase in new students in the Swedish educational system, the Swedish Board of Education tasked a group of schools and universities to find a way to assess what newly arrived students know in order to provide the best possible education for each student, as well as focusing on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. This resulted in the formation of materials for conducting discourse around history for the purpose of assessing the historical competencies of newly arrived students. This is done in the form of a 70-minute conversation between a teacher and a student. The assessment is meant to provide valuable insight into what the students are already familiar with, so that teachers can take this into account when creating lesson plans.