Debates about the identity of school history and about the nature and purpose of the learning that does, can and should take place in history classrooms continue in many countries around the world. At issue, in many of these debates, beyond the concerns about history and national identity, are often unaddressed questions about the role and inter-relationship of historical knowledge and historical understanding in historical learning. Research on historical thinking is on-going and a complex tradition of enquiry has developed across national borders in the last 30 years, focusing, in particular on developing students understanding of historical meta-concepts such as ‘evidence’ and ‘causation’. There has been comparatively little focus, however, on the historical content that students study, on how they study it and on how mastery of historical content contributes to students overall picture of a historical past. This volume gathers together recent research and theorising from around the world on key issues central to historical learning and instruction. What sense do students make of the history that they are taught? Are students able to organise historical knowledge in order to form large scale representations of the past and what difficulties can children face in doing so? What are the relationships that obtain between history as an academic discipline, as practised in universities, and history as a subject taught in schools? What can research tell us about the effects of instructional strategies that aim to help students ‘join up’ what they learn in class into meaningful historical knowledge and understanding?

A volume in International Review of History Education Series Editors Peter Lee, Rosalyn Ashby, Stuart Foster Debates about the identity of school history and about the nature and purpose of the learning that does, can and should take place in history classrooms continue in many countries around the world. At issue, in many of these debates, beyond the concerns about history and national identity, are often unaddressed questions about the role and inter-relationship of historical knowledge and historical understanding in historical learning. Research on historical thinking is on-going and a complex tradition of enquiry has developed across national borders in the last 30 years, focusing, in particular on developing students understanding of historical meta-concepts such as 'evidence' and 'causation'. There has been comparatively little focus, however, on the historical content that students study, on how they study it and on how mastery of historical content contributes to students overall picture of a historical past. This volume gathers together recent research and theorising from around the world on key issues central to historical learning and instruction. What sense do students make of the history that they are taught? Are students able to organise historical knowledge in order to form large scale representations of the past and what difficulties can children face in doing so? What are the relationships that obtain between history as an academic discipline, as practised in universities, and history as a subject taught in schools? What can research tell us about the effects of instructional strategies that aim to help students 'join up' what they learn in class into meaningful historical knowledge and understanding?

'Joined- up government' is a key theme of modern government. The Labour government, first elected in 1997, decided that intractable problems such as social exclusion, drug addiction and crime could not be resolved by any single department of government. Instead, such problems had to be made the object of a concerted attack using all the arms of government - central and local government and public agencies, as well as the private and voluntary sectors. This book seeks to analyse 'joined-up government', to consider its history, and to evaluate its consequences for British institutions such as the Cabinet, the civil service and local authorities. Is joined-up government a new idea, or merely a new label for a very old idea? What lessons can be learnt from previous attempts at joined-up government? How does it affect our traditional constitutional conceptions relating to Cabinet government, a politically neutral and non-partisan civil service, and an independent system of local government? Will it lead to the concentration of power in 10 Downing Street or is it compatible with a political system based on checks and balances? Drawing together papers given at a conference held at the British Academy, Joined-Up Government provides a broad overview of one of the most significant aspects in modern government. Its contributors include not only distinguished academics, but also those who have themselves been engaged as practitioners in developing joined-up programmes. This book will be indispensable to all those who seek to understand how new developments in government are affecting our lives.

The 6th book of the International Review of History Education Series, Contemporary public debates over history education, presents public debates on history education as they appear in 14 different areas of the world, in Asia, Europe, North and South America. In alphabetical order: in Brazil, by Maria Auxiliadora Schmidt and Tânia Braga Garcia, in Canada, by Peter Seixas, in England, by Rosalyn Ashby and Christopher Edwards, in Greece, by Irene Nakou and Eleni Apostolidou, in Israel, by Eyal Naveh, in Japan and South Korea, by Yonghee Suh and Makito Yurita, in Northern Ireland, by Alan McCully, in Portugal, by Isabel Barca, in Quebec (Canada), by Jean-Francois Cardin, in Singapore, by Suhaimi Afandi and Mark Baildon, in Spain, by Lis Cercadillo, in Turkey, by Dursun Dilek and Gülcin (Yapici) Dilek, and in the United States, by Peter Stearns. By illuminating common trends, national peculiarities and differences, this collective book further enriches our knowledge about crucial issues concerning public perspectives over history education in diverse parts of the world. It opens new questions and issues to be further investigated by all who are interested in this field, in terms of its historical, educational, global, national, ethnic, cultural, social and political dimensions in the current transitional and multicultural environment. This international dialogue therefore addresses historians, history education researchers, university professors, school teachers, policy makers, publishers, parents and all those who insist that history education is very important, especially if it enables young people to orientate in the present and the future in historical terms

Description: ""Finding our best humanity in Jesus Christ"" is the key theme of Andrew Cameron's fresh exploration, in which he seeks to understand ethics as springing from Jesus, and to show how identifying with Jesus Christ brings order and clarity to human life. ""In a world where everyone is an expert on right and wrong, this book tries to show how Jesus unifies the best of what you hear. He joins up messy lives."" Cameron's accessible, coherent, and innovative analysis is divided into seven parts. Each part contains several self-contained chapters that address some specific aspect of Christian thinking about ethics and life, and each chapter is cross-referenced to other key chapters. The chapters may be read in sequence, or dipped into in any order. Part 1 considers some common ways of thinking about ethics (e.g., rules, rights, values, and results). Part 2 considers some arenas we are unaware of, but that have a huge impact on how we live. Part 3 shows how Jesus Christ becomes a better main category than ethics for determining who we are and what we do. Part 4 builds a ""unified field,"" shaped in response to Jesus Christ, by which we can orient ourselves to whatever is around us. Part 5 examines some means by which we approach the daily details of life within this overall orientation. Part 6 looks at some aspects of our life-package, or ""vocation,"" to see how they are located within the ""unified field."" Part 7 visits some areas of discussion that cause great disagreement between Christians and others, and tries to show why. Cameron offers a stimulating reappraisal of our cluttered, tumultuous lives and encourages us to see life through a different lens. Endorsements: 'Books about Christian ethics can often seem abstract, dry, and remote from the complexities of our lived lives. This one brings ethics down to earth and yet succeeds in raising our sights with an inspiring vision of faithfulness to Christ in all aspects of our lives. It is clear, engaging, and user-friendly, yet infused throughout with a deep biblical wisdom. It covers an enormous amount of ground, yet allows the reader to enter the conversation anywhere they wish. It is an admirable achievement and will prove useful to a wide variety of audiences.' Jonathan Chaplin, Director, The Kirby Laing Institute of Christian Ethics, Cambridge 'Few books are harder to write or more important than a good introduction to Christian ethics. To be successful such an introduction must always remain clear and accessible while undertaking the daunting task of calling into question commonly held understandings of theology, biblical studies, and pastoral concern. Cameron's Joined-Up Life succeeds admirably at this task. His account of Christian ethics exudes the warmth of the gospel on every page and yields genuinely fresh insights into a host of common but tired ethical discussions. I heartily recommend it.' Brian R. Brock, Lecturer in Moral and Practical Theology, Department of Divinity and Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen"

How is history represented? As just a record of the past, as a part of a present identity or as future goals? This book explores how historical contents and narratives are presented in school textbooks and other cultural productions (museums, monuments, etc) and also how they are understood by students, in the context of increasing globalization. In these contemporary conditions, the relation between history learning processes, in and out of school, and the construction of national identities presents an ever more important topic. It is being studied by looking at the appropriation of historical narratives, which are frequently based on the official history of a nation state. Most of the chapters in this volume are educational studies about how the learning of history takes place in school settings of different countries such as Canada, France, Germany, Latin America, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Covering such a broad sample of cultural and national contexts, they provide a rich reflection on history as a subject related to patriotism, cosmopolitanism, both or neither.

“Echoing Events” questions the perpetuation, actualization, and canonization of national narratives in English and Dutch history textbooks, wide-reaching media that tendentially inspire a sense of meaning, memory, and thus also identity. The longitudinal study begins in the 1920s, when the League of Nations launched several initiatives to reduce strong nationalistic visions in textbooks, and ends in the new millennium with the revival of national narratives in both countries. The analysis shows how and why textbook authors have narrated different histories – which vary in terms of context, epoch, and place – as ‘echoing events’ by using recurring plots and the same combinations of historical analogies. This innovative and original study thus investigates from a new angle the resistance of national narratives to change.