Story education: Assessing history education in light of narrative therapy

Abstract

This paper discusses the obstructive dimension of specific declarative knowledge on historical thinking. Through considering the anthropological and social-psychological functions of stories, the author identifies potential difficulties individuals may face when trying to decipher, understand, and evaluate particular stories, as intended by historical thinking. By comparing the incapacity to cope with complex historic narratives with the effects of trauma, the paper discusses how approaches in narrative psychotherapy may add interesting insights to the domain of history education. The paper concludes that selection of declarative knowledge needs to be critically reviewed from a pathological perspective if historical thinking is set to be one of the main functions of history education.