Teaching History Meaningfully: A Phenomenological Explication of the Experience of History Teacher Educators in Ethiopia

The common mistake in History education is the unquestioned assumption that History is all about facts and that History learning is cramming the facts. This is unfortunate. History has much more to offer. Beyond the lower-order learning outcome of fact acquisition, History education is instrumental to train mind to make sound judgments and valid arguments. In this regard, the role of the teacher in making history lessons meaningful and practically relevant is of critical importance. As such, teaching History meaningfully means facilitating real learning through engaging learning experiences with a historical inquiry at the center. This requires, from the teacher's side, critical epistemic assumption and updated theoretical understanding, deep subject matter knowledge, general pedagogical competence, and history-specific pedagogical knowledge. This book is about the instructional lived experience of History educators in Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia). Using a phenomenology approach, the study explicates conceptions and practices of the educators in relation to promoting historical thinking skills of students.

Tebeje Molla is an educator trained in History Education, Curriculum and Instruction, and Educational Sociology. His research interest includes pedagogical content knowledge in history, recognition of prior learning, and social equity in the context of neoliberal educational agenda.