The Didactics of history from a French-speaking perspective

Abstract

The teaching of history in the French-speaking European area has grown and diversified, but still remains fragile and incomplete in its structure. Among those who brought it to the fore, Suzanne Citron stressed its national confinement before Henri Moniot gave it its legitimacy by highlighting the differences and interactions between history and its school version. Completing a 2008 summary note by Nicole Allieu-Mary and Nicole Lautier, the lively debates in public space on the past, its transmission and its memory have marked the evolution of this didactics, as well as the concept of knowledge flavour (Jean-Pierre Astolfi) derived from its elementary nature and mobilizing true historical thinking. The productions of the didactics of history are rich and diverse, but the doctoral theses that succeed hardly lead to stable positions in the academic world. There is therefore a gap between this reality and the magnitude of the challenges that this didactics has to face in today's world.

Keywords

• didactics of history
• historical thinking
• elementation of knowledge
• research and teaching
• public use of history