Why History Education?

ANITHA OFORIWAH ADU-BOAHEN is a Senior Lecturer in History Education at the University of Education Winneba, Ghana. Her main research interests include Historical Education with special focus on teaching and learning history, Curriculum Development and Evaluation.

SEBASTIAN BARSCH, Dr., is Professor of the Didactics of History at the University of Cologne, Germany. His research focuses on inclusive history education, material culture, and disability history.

KARL P. BENZIGER, Ph. D. is a Professor of History at Rhode Island College. Main research interests: History and Memory, Cold War, Hungary, Civil Rights, Global History, and History Education.

ANDREA BRAIT, MMag. Dr., Associate Professor at the Department of Contemporary History and the Department of subject-specific Education of the University of Innsbruck. Main research interests: historical-political learning, out-of-school learning places.

ALEX BUFF; Dr., Professor of Psychology at the Zurich University of Teacher Education in Zurich, Switzerland. Main research interests: quantitative research methods; educational psychology, motivation.

AURÉLIE DE MESTRAL, Dr. in History Didactics and History of Education at the University of Geneva and the University of Teacher Education in Lausanne, Switzerland. Main research interests: transformation of school knowledge in history from a didactic and historical point of view, programs and textbook analysis, gender studies.

SYLVAIN DOUSSOT, Dr., Professor of History Didactics at the Institut National Supérieur du Professorat et de l’Education of Nantes University, France. Main research interests: the relationship between teaching and learning history, and the didactic training of teachers, within the theoretical framework of learning by problematization.

EUGÈNE DÉSIRÉ ELOUNDOU, Doctorate in History from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Associate Professor of History and Teacher Trainer at the Higher Teacher Training College University of Yaoundé 1. Main research interests: The history of Cameroon under German colonization and history didactics.

ELISABETH ERDMANN, Prof. Dr. phil. habil., until 2007 Chair of the Didactics of History at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, from 2001–2011 President of the International Society for the Didactics of History, since 2011 Honorary President. Main fields of work: Didactics of History, Ancient History, Archaeology.

NADINE FINK, Dr., Professor of History Didactics at the University of Teacher Education in Lausanne, Switzerland. Main research interests: teaching and learning practices in history; relations between memory, history and identity; oral history and critical thinking.

MARKUS FURRER, Prof. em. Dr., until 2022 Professor for History and the Didactics of History at the Lucerne University of Teacher Education/Switzerland, PD at the University of Fribourg. Main research interest: Contemporary History, Oral History and the Use of History.

PETER GAUTSCHI, Dr. phil., is Professor of History Education at the Lucerne University of Teacher Education/Switzerland, where he also is the Head of the Lucerne Institute for History Education and Public History. His research focuses on history education, public history, and curriculum and textbooks development.

KATJA GORBAHN, Dr. phil., Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University, Denmark. Main research interests: textbook analysis, history didactics and second language acquisition, identity constructions in historical narratives, digital analysis methods.

KAAREL HAAV, Dr., graduated from Tartu University as a historian and a teacher of history and civics. More recently he has conducted a number of sociological studies and designed the main sociological concepts into a system. He has used this system in his teaching and research on civic education and curriculum development in Estonia and Europe.

WOLFGANG HASBERG, Dr., Professor for Mediaeval History and History Didactics at the University of Cologne, Germany. Main research interests: Medieval History, Historiography, Regional History, Theory and Didactics of History.

TERRY HAYDN, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of East Anglia, UK. His research interests are the purposes of school history, the use of new technology in history education, and issues relating to values and dispositions in the teaching of history.

ANDREAS HÜBNER is currently a Lecturer of History and History Didactics at Kiel University. His research focuses on global history as well as environmental and Anthropocene studies.

LEEVINA IYER, M.Ed., is a Lecturer in History Education in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Main research interests: history textbooks, interdisciplinarity of history, information and communication technology in history.

SUN JOO KANG, PhD, is a Professor at the Gyeongin National University of Education, South Korea. Her current research interests includes teaching and learning controversial history and difficult history, teaching history and heritage in museums, and public history and digital history literacy.

LYONEL KAUFMANN, Dr., Professor Associate of History Didactics at the University of Teacher Education in Lausanne, Switzerland. Main research interests: teaching and learning practices in history; textbook analysis and history of education; use of digital technology and the place of public history in education.

ALAIN LAMASSOURE, alumnus of the ENA (National School of Administration), Magistrate at the French Court of Auditors, Mayor of Anglet, France, Member of the French National Assembly (1986 – 1993), Minister for European Affairs, then Budget Minister (1993 – 1997). Member of the European Parliament (1999 – 2019). Chairman of the Budgets Control Committee, then of the Budgets Committee and of the temporary Committee on Tax Avoidance. Member of the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002 – 2003). President of the Governing Board of the Observatory of History Teaching in Europe (2021).

JAN LÖFSTRÖM, PhD, Professor of History and Social Studies Education in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Turku, Finland. Main research interests: history education, social studies education, moral education, teacher training.

MICHAEL NDOBEGANG MBAPNDAH, Ph.D., Senior High School Teacher Trainer and Associate Professor of African Political and Social History, University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon. Former Member of the Cameroon Parliament. Main research interests: Cameroon Social and Political history, history didactics, heritage studies.

ZOLEKA MKHABELA, M.Ed., is a lecturer in Social Sciences Education in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Durban South Africa. Main research interests: Teaching controversial issues, historical inequalities, and issues of land.

THOMAS METZGER, Dr. phil., Professor of History and Co-director of the Centre of Democracy Education and Human Rights at the St. Gallen University of Teacher Education, Switzerland; Main research interests: antisemitism, inclusion-exclusion, fascism, decolonization, Switzerland in the interwar period.

CHARLES ADABO OPPONG is an Associate Professor in History Education at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. His primary research areas of interest include History Education, Curriculum Implementation and Evaluation.

VÁCLAV SIXTA, PhD., Historian and Educator in the Department of Education of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Czech Republic. Main research interests: cultures of memory in history education, public history, and the relationship between civics and history education.

BARNABÁS VAJDA, Dr. habil. Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education of J. Selye University, Komárno, Slovakia. Main fields of interest: international relations in the Cold War, history of Radio Free Europe, and history didactics, including research on history school textbooks.

JORIS VAN DOORSSELAERE has been active as a history teacher in secondary education in Flanders since 2011. He holds Master’s degrees in History (2013) and Art Sciences and Archaeology (2020) and is currently conducting PhD research at Ghent University.

KAREL VAN NIEUWENHUYSE, PhD, is Associate Professor of History Didactics at Leuven University (Belgium). Main research interests related to history education are the position of the present, the use of historical sources, the links between historical narratives and identification and between historical thinking and civic attitudes, and representations of colonial pasts.

JOHAN WASSERMANN, D.Phil., is an Honorary Professor in History Education in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Main research interests: youth and history, teaching controversial issues in history in the African context, history textbooks in the African context.

JOANNA WOJDON, PhD, Professor of History at the University of Wrocław, Poland. Main research interests: history didactics, public history, Polish American history, history of propaganda and education under communist regime.