Cultural Heritage and Methodological Approaches—An Analysis through Initial Training of History Teachers (Spain–England)

Abstract

Research on heritage education has progressed remarkably and a large number of studies point to a greater presence of active methodologies and the use of resources and primary sources in the classroom. At this point it seems important to investigate the perceptions and experiences of future history and social science teachers. Thus, this paper studies the value that 506 Spanish and English teachers in initial training place on heritage and its presence in the teaching-learning process of history, as well as their views on the existing connections between methodological perceptions and the use of cultural heritage in the classroom. It is a non-experimental descriptive and quantitative study with data collected through questionnaire. This questionnaire was built ad hoc to analyze the opinions and perceptions of teachers in initial training about history education in Secondary Education. The results show that teachers in initial training value highly or very highly the use of cultural heritage in Secondary Education to promote active methodologies, the critical teaching of history, and the development of historical skills. Teachers in training in Spain value more highly the use of heritage than English teachers. While English teachers in training value more highly the resolution of problems through historical documentary sources, Spanish teachers rate the emotional and motivational aspects higher.

Active teachers’ perceptions on the most suitable resources for teaching history

“…From the above we see that, although teachers are considering the use of less traditional resources, they continue to use more traditional resources and strategies that focus, above all, on the transmission and memorization of information (Oller, 2011;Gómez and Sobrino, 2018;Gómez-Carrasco et al, 2020).…”

Educación patrimonial para una ciudadanía participativa. Evaluación de resultados de aprendizaje del alumnado en el programa Patrimonializarte

“…Un estudio reciente en España e Inglaterra, con futuros profesores de historia, muestra que no conceden demasiado valor a la historia local y al patrimonio intangible (Gómez-Carrasco, Miralles-Martínez, Fontal, e Ibáñez-Etxeberria, 2020). Se considera relevante trabajar en esta línea, pues la inclusión del patrimonio inmaterial en los programas educativos es fundamental para su salvaguarda (UNESCO, 2003;Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 2004;Lenzerini, 2011;Yang, Shafi, Song y Yang, 2018).…”

Student Concepts after a Didactic Experiment in Heritage Education

“…In this sense, we present an analysis of students' conceptions after experimenting with an innovative proposal that places emphasis on the link between school and museum. There are numerous articles on analysis of the conceptions of patrimony and heritage education held by primary and secondary school teachers [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. In our case, we consider that one way to measure the success rate of a didactic intervention is by analyzing the concepts of the students taking part before and after the process.…”

“…In formal education, heritage education is closely linked with social science teaching. Numerous studies highlight the need to involve students with their environment, with their knowledge, valuation, enjoyment, use, and dissemination of their heritage as an element that symbolizes the social and cultural identity of communities [3][4][5][6][7].…”