“But they can’t do that!” practical approaches to engage south african primary school pupils in historical learning

Abstract

The chapter poses as a key question what the precursors are to historical thinking in children and how one can stimulate its nascent development through practical classroom approaches. Its context is the immediate post-apartheid period when opportunities first presented themselves to introduce alternative approaches to the historical content and pedagogy of curricula in previous decades. The challenge was to find how one could replace mindless repetition and very low comprehension with something that the children could actually understand and do themselves without it being inappropriate to their ages and intelligence. It examines family history, new styles of textbooks, games and simulations, and stories from pictures as means to engage children in activities to achieve this and analyzes what characterizes them in terms of historical thinking.