Between “Acts-And-Facts History” and “Edutainment” in the History of Education Study Courses: The Case of University of Latvia

Abstract

At present, the history of education is experiencing a paradox: research in the history of education is flourishing, but the history of education as a study subject is losing its relevance in university curricula. The present research aims at examining the potential of education history in student-centred and research-based study process while addressing the experience in teaching education history in master’s study programmes at the University of Latvia from 1920 to 2020. The article comprises three sections: the first section offers an overview of the evolvement of the history of education as a study subject in Europe and Latvia; the second section, based on the experience of teaching the history of education and research in history didactics, reveals three possible approaches to the study course in the history of education; the third section foregrounds the integration of digitized historical sources in the delivery of student-centred and research-based education history courses. The research demonstrates that each of the three approaches (“acts-and-facts history,” “problem-oriented history of education,” and “edutainment”) has student-centred potential in shaping historical thinking. The student-centred study process in a modern university is closely related to research-based studies, which in the study course of education history means independent research of history aligned with students’ individual interests in the field of education.