Chapter 6: Teachers Teaching History in Spain: Aims, Perceptions, and Practice on Second-Order Concepts

In recent years, international research on history education has shifted its focus from generic thinking to specific thinking and ideas linked to history as a discipline. At the same time, we have seen a shift from a focus on particular second-order concepts, to usable frameworks of the past that connect both dimensions of historical learning. This chapter will report the findings of an exploratory small-scale study of a sample of Spanish secondary school teachers that focused first on their perceptions of the aims of school history, and second on some of their teaching approaches to second-order concepts, particularly to multicausality. The findings show that, despite a lack of theoretical or conceptual development in Spanish curricula, expert and novice teachers are well able to think in terms of second-order concepts when dealing with their students’ learning. Teaching practices, therefore, may ameliorate the rigid factual constraints underlying the curriculum. Further work that interrelates research and teaching practice is needed to contribute to the development of specific teaching strategies that can be used cross-culturally, and that may foster the reinforcement of the disciplinary approach to history within the different curricula.