Introduction
You are a soldier in the First World War. You write a letter home. Address your letter to your mother or your little brother.
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Think about the person who will receive the letter. What would she/he like to know?
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Write from the heart.
(Blink Wereld, Grades 7–8 B, theme 1, Fantastic families, lesson 1)
This example of a task from a Dutch primary school history textbook, aimed at students aged 10–12, can be labelled as an attempt at historical perspective taking (HPT), which refers to the mental activity of attempting to take the perspective of historical people (Seixas and Morton, 2013) (all examples from Dutch textbooks in this article are translated by Bertjaap van der Ploeg). The concept of HPT has attracted history scholars and teachers worldwide as an important goal of history education, where it is considered a historical thinking and reasoning concept, which aims to understand historical human behaviour (Sandahl, 2020; Seixas, 2017; Van Boxtel and Van Drie, 2018). Citizenship education scholars also consider HPT to be a valuable goal, as, in diverse societies in an increasingly globalised world, it is becoming more urgent for citizens to understand and appreciate the perspectives of other groups or individuals (Bartelds et al., 2020; Risberg, 2022). Gehlbach (2011) emphasises the relevance of perspective taking for many contexts, as ‘understanding others is a core human process’ (p. 312). Several scholars agree that the teaching of HPT has the potential to contribute to this citizenship skill of perspective taking (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Endacott and Brooks, 2013; Fertig, 2005; Gehlbach and Mu, 2023).
However, due to the relevance of HPT across various subjects, the concept has also been understood differently, and thus has been associated with different learning outcomes (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Endacott and Brooks, 2013; Huijgen et al., 2017; Nilsen, 2016; Seixas, 2017). Therefore, HPT is a much discussed but often ill-defined construct that appears in different shapes. In this article, we distinguish between and discuss the following two different approaches of HPT: (1) HPT as part of a historical explanation, involving knowledge of the historical context, working with sources and chronology; and (2) HPT as a more generic form of perspective taking aimed at historical people, involving imagination and an affective, personal connection.
In the Netherlands, primary schools are obliged by law to foster citizenship competencies, which enable children to participate in and contribute to a diverse and democratic society (Rijksoverheid, 2024). This aligns with the recommendations formulated by the Council of Europe (2018) about quality history education in the twenty-first century. Part of this broad legal task is the concept of perspective taking as a goal for primary school students, which is described as ‘gaining experience in dealing with different perspectives’ and is considered an aspect of dealing with diversity (Stichting Leerplanontwikkeling, 2025, p. 46). Primary schools are entitled to choose how they shape their education, within a framework of core curriculum goals (Dutch: kerndoelen). Schools can choose their own approach and which textbooks they want to use. History textbooks play an important role in how lessons are designed and implemented, especially in primary education where teachers are often not history experts (Khawaja and Puustinen, 2022). As seen in the example at the start of the introduction, HPT can be promoted in textbooks. Due to the growing interest in HPT from different fields of expertise, it is to be expected that primary school history textbooks also promote HPT in different ways, aiming for different learning outcomes.
Previous history textbook studies have mostly focused on the content choices in textbooks, describing, for example, the way topics such as the Holocaust, racism, world history or gender are depicted (Houwen, 2023; Huijgen et al., 2016; Lindquist, 2009; Montgomery, 2005), or the way different narratives are presented (Grever and Van der Vlies, 2017; Kropman et al., 2020). Other textbook studies have analysed the complexity of tasks (Kühberger et al., 2019) or the way historical empathy is fostered in different textbooks (Morgan, 2015). However, how HPT is employed in primary school textbooks has not been previously studied. As a result of the citizenship task for primary schools and the relevance of history textbooks in primary education, we will analyse how these textbooks promote HPT and how this ties in with current citizenship education practices.
If the subject of history is to be fertile ground for fostering citizenship competencies such as perspective taking, and many teachers who face this challenging task consider themselves non-experts in history, it is crucial to understand how textbooks in primary school promote the concept of HPT. Therefore, in this article, we aim to shed light on the different ways history textbooks in primary school promote HPT and the learning outcomes these textbooks foster. Often, textbook studies focus on texts only. In this research, we included the tasks, texts and teacher guides of two textbooks to gain insight into how these textbooks promote HPT and how they support teachers in their guiding of HPT.
Theoretical framework
Conceptualisation of HPT
The concept of HPT refers to the mental activity of ‘attempting to see through the eyes of people who lived in times and circumstances sometimes far removed from our present-day lives’ (Seixas and Morton, 2013, p. 138). Due to this focus on the historical person, the concept might also be coined as personal HPT. Rather than generally discussing present-day matters ‘from a historical perspective’, HPT deals with specific, personal perspectives. In this sense, HPT is a form of humanising history, drawing attention to the individual person in history, rather than the larger economical or societal developments (Gehlbach, 2011).
Although HPT always deals with historical perspectives, the word taking has led to different interpretations of the concept, resulting in different educational practices. This article distinguishes between two different approaches of HPT: (1) HPT as part of a historical explanation, emphasising the importance of knowledge of the historical context, working with historical sources and acknowledging the importance of chronology in trying to understand historical behaviour (Seixas, 2017; Seixas and Morton, 2013; Wilschut and Schiphorst 2019); and (2) HPT as an alternative form of ‘perspective taking’, a more generic – and less historical – approach of HPT (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Gehlbach and Mu, 2023), which often involves imagining the historical perspective (Dulberg, 2002; Skolnick et al., 2004). This more generic approach of HPT is often associated with practising citizenship competencies in the present day (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Endacott and Brooks, 2013).
HPT as part of a historical explanation
The concept of HPT is primarily understood as an element of historical thinking and historical explanation (for example, Seixas, 2017; Seixas and Morton, 2013; Wilschut and Schiphorst, 2019). In this sense, HPT has been described as recognition and understanding of the perspectives of historical people. Recognition refers to the activity of recognising that historical perspectives are different from our present-day perspective (Barton and Levstik, 2004). The understanding of these historical perspectives involves gathering and processing information from (historical) sources and embedding this information in prior knowledge of the historical context and chronology (Huijgen et al., 2017; Yeager and Foster, 2001). Therefore, HPT can be seen as an attempt to provide a historical context for historical human behaviour. Without at least some basic knowledge of the historical context of a historical agent, students could read a source or learn information about this person but would not be able to understand the historical agent’s actions, beliefs or values in relation to their historical period. Rather, in trying to understand or explain certain actions or beliefs from the historical agent, students would default to their own worldview and things they take for granted, thus reasoning from their own perspective rather than the historical perspective. This tendency to impose our present perspective and worldviews on the historical situation has been described as presentism (Huijgen et al., 2017; Wineburg, 1999).
HPT as a form of perspective taking
Besides this historical function, HPT could also be approached as a more generic form of perspective taking, by learning to deal with perspectives radically other than our own (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Endacott and Brooks, 2013; Fertig, 2005; Gehlbach and Mu, 2023). In this approach, HPT is seen not merely as part of a historical explanation but also as a fruitful practice in dealing with different perspectives, which is conceived as an important goal for citizenship education.
This more generic approach includes the use of HPT as a vehicle for lessons about the ‘ethical dimension’ (Huijgen et al., 2022; Löfström et al., 2021; Seixas and Morton, 2013). In these lessons, historical perspectives are discussed as moral examples (positive or negative), leading to reflection on one’s own perspective or one’s own character (see the work of the Dutch National Hannie Schaft Foundation, promoting the remembrance of Second World War resistance-heroine Hannie Schaft, with the slogan ‘How Hannie are you?’). In this more generic approach, the concept of HPT is understood as having numerous similarities with the concept of social perspective taking (SPT), which is traditionally defined as follows:
Taking the perspective of another person is the ability to understand how a situation appears to another person and how that person is reacting cognitively and emotionally to the situation. It is the ability to put oneself in the place of others and recognize that other individuals may have points of view different from one’s own. (Johnson, 1975, p. 241)
In more recent studies, Sandahl (2020), Gehlbach (2011) and Gehlbach and Mu (2023) use a broader definition of SPT, distinguishing between interpersonal SPT, aimed at better understanding others in the social world, and academic SPT, aimed at better understanding a historical person or group as an object of study. Gehlbach (2011) acknowledges that ‘there is little doubt that these are two very different forms of SPT’ (p. 313). Other scholars also mention these differences, stating, for example, that the distance in time and/or culture between the perceiver and the target perspective make HPT (or academic SPT) more challenging than interpersonal SPT in a social setting (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Endacott and Brooks, 2013; Hartmann and Hasselhorn, 2008).
Furthermore, Gehlbach (2011) also describes the similarities between these two different forms of SPT, for instance that in both forms ‘a perceiver will read a peer or a historical figure with some level of accuracy’ (p. 313) and that ‘both forms are susceptible to an array of biases that can degrade a perceiver’s ability to make accurate inferences’ (p. 314). Gehlbach and Mu (2023) define SPT broadly as ‘the process of a perceiver discerning the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of one or more targets’, where ‘some SPT attempts occur with the target being present … while others do not (for example, a history student imagining civil rights protesters’ feelings during marches)’ (p. 284). The recognition of the similarities between SPT and HPT (or academic SPT) makes it possible to apply insights from fostering SPT to fostering its historical counterpart, HPT.
Our dual conceptualisation of HPT
The concept of HPT has been approached, among other things, as an aptitude (see Gehlbach, 2004; Gehlbach and Mu, 2023), a competency (see Hartmann and Hasselhorn, 2008) and a process (see Nilsen, 2016). In this article, focusing on the different ways history textbooks promote HPT, we approach HPT as a process in which one can engage and attempt to ‘see through the eyes’ of a historical person within an accurately constructed context. With the similarities between HPT and SPT, and the different approaches of HPT previously described in mind, in this article we use a dual conceptualisation of HPT, consisting of the following two components:
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1)
Historical contextualisation: this comprises the following subcomponents: knowledge of the historical context (Huijgen et al., 2017; Yeager and Foster, 2001); working with historical sources (Reisman and Wineburg, 2008; Seixas, 2017); and attention to chronology (De Groot-Reuvekamp et al., 2014).
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2)
Perspective taking: this comprises the following subcomponents: imagining how a situation appears to another person (Gehlbach and Mu, 2023; Skolnick et al., 2004); importance of a personal, affective connection with the other perspective (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Skolnick et al., 2004); addressing differences and similarities between the historical perspective and the own perspective (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Nordgren and Johansson, 2015); and addressing the ethical dimension (Huijgen et al., 2022; Löfström et al., 2021).
This conceptualisation of HPT is visualised in Figure 1.
Visualisation of the two sides of our conceptualisation of HPT
Because of the decisive role of the availability of materials like historical sources or context knowledge in performing HPT, we do not consider HPT primarily as an individual competence or skill. HPT is rather a process of negotiating the different components of contextualisation and perspective taking. Quality or competency in this process might show in the conscious back-and-forth navigating between the available (source) material and one’s own imagination, and in not losing oneself in only one of these components.
The overlap in the two circles indicates that HPT, in our view, in its ‘ideal’ form should display elements of both components: historical contextualisation and perspective taking. Most professional historians will try to balance these two components when they engage in HPT: they will accurately try to reconstruct the historical context while at the same time acknowledging their own positionality when they imagine other perspectives. In this process, presentism to some degree is inevitable, due to the influence of ‘our socio-cultural bearings’, which we cannot shake off, even if we try (Miles and Gibson, 2022; Van Sledright, 2001).
In this article, we deliberately use the term HPT rather than the also widely used concept of historical empathy (see Bartelds et al., 2020; Endacott and Brooks, 2013, 2018). Our dual conceptualisation with overlapping circles resembles the model of Endacott and Brooks (2013), who also place HPT between historical contextualisation and perspective taking when conceptualising historical empathy. While cultivating empathy is widely recognised as a key objective of history education, especially in the context of citizenship, historical empathy itself remains a contested and malleable concept. It is often treated as a broad, overarching term, sometimes even used to describe the ultimate aim of history education as a whole (Endacott and Brooks, 2018). Given our focus on how textbooks present the study of different historical perspectives, the concept of HPT offers a more precise and focused framework for our analysis.
The two different sides of our conceptualisation entail different and sometimes opposing views on how students in the here and now should position themselves when they engage in HPT. On one side of the spectrum, there is a plea for a dispassionate, academic approach of historical perspectives, advocating that ‘one has to take leave as much as possible of one’s own standards and values’ (Wilschut and Schiphorst, 2019) and emphasising the risk of presentism in accurate historical explanations (Wineburg, 1999). On the other side, there is a plea for a more affective approach to historical perspectives, involving current experiences and emotions of students in connecting with the experiences of historical people (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Santiago and Dozono, 2024; Skolnick et al., 2004) and stressing the importance of beginning with ‘where students are’ (Dulberg, 2005, p. 523). In the same line of thought, Nordgren and Johansson (2015) emphasise the importance of always addressing the presence of one’s own perspective while studying or discussing historical perspectives. Our conceptualisation acknowledges these different approaches of HPT; the arrows in the visualisation (see Figure 1) indicate that attempts at HPT – for example in history textbooks – can be positioned somewhere along the line between historical contextualisation and perspective taking.
Although in professional history there is a nuanced understanding of our positionality and the influence of presentism, this is not always the case in educational practice. Some historians are therefore very critical of HPT tasks in textbooks that ask students to write a letter from a certain historical perspective, without providing adequate primary source evidence and a historical context. For instance, Seixas (2017) describes these tasks as a ‘common pedagogical error’ (p. 621), which will result in an imaginative exercise by the student rather than evoke HPT. However, textbook editors seem to deliberately incorporate these imaginative exercises in order to begin with ‘where students are’ (Dulberg, 2005, p. 523). This different insight into how to foster HPT corresponds with differing opinions on the difficulty of HPT for young learners.
In this article, we build on insights from prior studies that describe the ability of primary school children to recognise different historical perspectives (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Endacott and Brooks, 2013; Fertig, 2005; Huijgen et al., 2017; Von Heyking, 2004). From a developmental point of view, children from about 10 years old are seen as capable of balanced forms of perspective taking, but substantial differences exist between children of the same development stage (Gehlbach and Mu, 2023). Classic developmental psychologists describe that, after a first egocentric stage, children aged 6–8 realise that others have different points of view (Selman, 1975). In the next stage, children aged 8–10 are believed to recognise that perspectives can differ, even if people have access to the same information. Children aged 10–12 are believed to be able to take a third-person perspective and have the ability to take multiple points of views (Flavell, 2000; Gehlbach and Mu, 2023; Selman, 1975). Developmental stage theories have received criticism for not addressing the individual factors that influence development through these stages, which may be affected by sociocultural factors and are not always linear (Lourenço, 2016). In addition, evidence of, for example, the CHATA (Concepts of History and Teaching Approaches) project suggests that students of same ages can differ greatly in their ability to handle second-order concepts, depending on whether they have received appropriate teaching or not (see Lee and Ashby, 2001). The development of a more sophisticated ability to take the perspectives of (historical) others corresponds with the development of other fundamental abilities, such as abstract thinking, taking a distant view and postponing judgement (Gehlbach and Mu, 2023).
The use of history textbooks in primary education
Over the past few decades there has been a shift in history education, from focusing on the knowledge of historical facts and dates to focusing on the skills of historical thinking and reasoning (Seixas and Morton, 2013; Van Boxtel and Van Drie, 2018). However, teachers who do not consider themselves experts in history tend to prefer teaching history as a closed narrative, emphasising substantive knowledge of facts and dates, rather than presenting history as an interpretative approach that addresses conflicting narratives and perspectives (James, 2008; Rantala and Khawaja, 2021; Wansink et al., 2018). Furthermore, in a study in Finland, Khawaja and Puustinen (2022) describe the tendency of non-expert teachers to follow the textbook. This preference to follow the narrative of the textbook seems to stem from practical and time-related issues, as well as low confidence in their ability to teach historical literacy.
In the Netherlands, there are mainly two types of history textbooks: history-specific textbooks, which aim solely at historical subjects, and integrated textbooks, which, besides history, also cover, for example, the subjects of geography and science. History-specific textbooks often follow a chronological approach, built around 10 historical periods (tijdvakken). Integrated textbooks often follow a thematic approach, working with overarching themes that make it possible to address historical, geographical and science-related topics. Examples of these broad themes are ‘Curious inventions’ (covering inventions through the ages) or ‘Always on the road’ (addressing migration through a geographical and a historical approach). The way history textbooks stimulate students to engage in the process of HPT differs through the variation in questions, source material and context information that are – or are not – provided by these textbooks (Endacott and Brooks, 2013; Yeager and Foster, 2001). For example, tasks that invite students to ground their answer in sources that are provided with the task will foster other goals than tasks that ask students to ground their answer in their own imaginations.
Besides the tasks, texts in history textbooks also present historical perspectives to students without necessarily providing an explicit instruction to meticulously reconstruct the historical perspective through questions and tasks. Therefore, we also included textbook texts in this study.
Guiding the process of HPT, pedagogical climate and interaction
In educational practice, teachers have an important role to play in the way their students work with the tasks and texts provided in their history textbooks. Therefore, it is key to understand how these textbooks support the guiding role of the teacher in the process of HPT. Moreover, other factors in classroom practice will influence the way students engage in HPT. Gehlbach (2004) emphasises the importance of the motivation and willingness of students to engage in perspective taking: ‘Just being an accurate perspective taker is insufficient; one must also choose to employ those skills’ (p. 42). This means that to foster HPT, there has to be a pedagogical climate in which students are susceptible to taking the perspectives of other (historical) people.
History textbooks are often aimed at the individual student completing tasks or reading texts on their own. However, perspective taking is likely to be more accurate when students collaborate and share their thinking processes: the involvement of multiple minds in studying a target perspective leads to multiple perspectives and could counterbalance certain individual biases (Gehlbach, 2011). Thus, interaction between students and teacher-guided classroom discussions about HPT can play important roles in HPT attempts (Endacott and Brooks, 2013; Gehlbach, 2017, 2011).
Research questions
In this article, we aim to shed light on the different ways two popular history textbooks in Dutch primary education promote HPT. Our conceptualisation of HPT and the discussion in our theoretical framework lead to the following research questions:
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RQ 1.
In what ways do primary school history textbooks promote HPT?
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(a) Which (sub)components of HPT are addressed in textbook tasks?
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(b) Which (sub)components of HPT are addressed in textbook texts?
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(c) How do textbook teacher guides facilitate the role of the teacher in guiding the process of HPT?
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RQ 2.
What are the main differences between an integrated textbook and a history-specific textbook concerning their promotion of HPT?
Method
Research design
To study the way primary history textbooks promote HPT, we conducted a horizontal textbook analysis (Pingel, 2010) of two widely used history textbooks for Dutch primary education, designed for students aged 9–12 years. For this analysis, we developed three coding schemes, aimed at tasks, texts and teacher guides. We attributed codes to fragments of the textbooks to discern how HPT was fostered.
Research context
Dutch primary education generally consists of eight grades (students aged 4–12). Based on insights from developmental psychology on the capability of children to perform complex forms of perspective taking such as HPT, we focused our research on the age group 10 to 12. This corresponds with the higher three grades of Dutch primary education. Teachers in Dutch primary education are educated as generalists and are expected to teach all subject matters in all grades. In most primary schools, history lessons are a fixed part of the curriculum from grades 5 to 8 (age 8–12). Due to limited time and practical considerations, teachers are tempted to closely follow the textbook (see the Finnish context in Khawaja and Puustinen, 2022). Schools are entitled to choose which type of textbooks they want to teach from. They also have the option not to use a textbook at all and instead work with self-developed materials. Since 2001, history education in the Netherlands (at the primary and secondary levels) is taught in 10 eras of history. Examples of these eras are ‘The era of monks and knights’ (500–1000), ‘The era of cities and states (1000–1500) and ‘The era of the world wars’ (1900–1950). History textbooks tend to follow this division in 10 eras.
Corpus of analysis and unit of analysis
The corpus of analysis of this study consisted of two Dutch history textbooks for primary education, Blink Wereld and Brandaan, two textbooks which are often selected by schools (for further information about these textbooks, see Table 1). Based on the information provided by the distributors of these textbooks, we found that the two textbooks combined represent about 85 per cent of the history textbooks sold in 2021. In line with our focus on the age group 10–12, we selected volumes of the history textbooks that aim at this age category. Since the volumes of these textbooks for children aged 9 and 10 are combined (aimed at grade 5 and 6), we also included these materials.
Both textbooks consist of 20 themes designed for grades 5 to 8 (ages 8–12), covering all 10 prescribed historical eras. We analysed all chapters of these themes, including all tasks and all texts. We included in our analyses the digital materials provided by the textbook publishers, consisting of presentation slides for smartboards with questions and instructions for students.
Information about our corpus of analysis of history textbooks
| Title | Blink Wereld | Brandaan |
| Publisher | Blink | Malmberg |
| Type of textbook | Integrated textbook (combining history, geography and science); thematic approach | History-specific textbook; chronological approach based on 10 eras (tijdvakken) |
| Year of release | 2019 (Version 1.0) | 2017 (2nd revised version) |
| Chapters | 20 (10 themes for group 5–6, 10 themes for group 7–8) | 20 (groups 5, 6, 7 and 8 – five eras –each) |
| Materials provided | Digital slides; combined work- and textbook (logboek) with texts and tasks; lesson plans for teachers (lesvoorbereidingen) | Digital slides; combined work- and textbook (leerwerkboek) with texts and tasks; teacher guide (handleiding) |
| Selected tasks | All tasks in workbook (logboek) and digital slides | All tasks in combined work- and textbook |
| Selected texts | All texts in workbooks (bronnenblad) and digital slides | All texts in combined work- and textbook (leerwerkboek) |
| Selected teacher guides | Teacher instructions for all lessons, in lesson plans for teachers | Teacher guide (handleiding) with instructions for teachers concerning the tasks and texts of all volumes |
We coded fragments of the textbooks’ tasks, texts and teacher guides. For the analysis of tasks, we considered one task, sometimes consisting of multiple questions, as the unit of analysis. This made it possible to discern which combination of aspects of HPT were addressed within one task. For the analysis of the texts and the teacher guides, we selected meaningful fragments as the unit of analysis, consisting of one or multiple sentences.
Coding schemes
Following methodology from previous textbook research (Pingel, 2010), we sought to clearly define the categories and aspects we were observing. For this reason, we divided the two components of our dual conceptualisation of HPT into smaller subcomponents, based on literature, and formulated these as observable aspects of HPT tasks, as shown in Table 2.
Coding of the two components of HPT in textbook tasks
| Aspects of historical contextualisation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Subcomponents | Codes | Description | Examples of quotations from textbook tasks |
| Working with historical sources (Reisman and Wineburg, 2008; Seixas, 2017) |
HC_TASK1 | The textbook provides sources (textbook texts/images/primary/secondary sources) for students to use during the HPT task. | [After reading the text:] ‘People believed in nature gods. According to them, what did these nature gods take care of? Mark the right answers.’ |
| HC_TASK2 | The textbook provides questions to support the students in studying the properties of the sources. | ‘This is an old text, from 1862. That appears from the sentence … [old Dutch saying]. Very old words. Yet can you understand what it is saying?’ | |
| Attention to chronology (De Groot-Reuvekamp et al., 2014) |
HC_TASK3 | The textbook pays attention to the chronological context of the subject of the task. | [A specific era is mentioned in the task] ‘Why did the people in “the era of cities and states” build big and high churches? Mark the right answers.’ |
| Knowledge of the historical context (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Huijgen et al. 2017; Yeager and Foster, 2001) |
HC_TASK4 | The textbook pays attention to the spatial/geographical context of the subject of the task. |
‘A lot of Dutch people emigrated to Australia. What did the Australian government think of this? And how did the Australians feel about the Dutch?’ |
| HC_TASK5 | The textbook pays attention to the political/economical or cultural context of the subject of the task. | ‘Spices were really expensive. Why did people buy them anyway?’ | |
| HC_TASK6 | The task involves the explanation and contextualisation of the contemporary age. | ‘How can you tell this is an advert from the past? Would this kind of advert still be possible today?’ | |
| Aspects of perspective taking | |||
| Imagining how a situation appears to another person (Gehlbach and Mu, 2023; Skolnick et al., 2004) |
PT_TASK1 | Students do not have to ground their answers in sources but instead make use of their own thinking/imagination. |
‘You are a soldier in the First World War. You write a letter home. Address your letter to your mother or your little brother. Think about the person who will receive the letter. What would she/he like to know? Write from the heart.’ |
| Importance of a personal, affective connection with the other perspective (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Skolnick et al., 2004) |
PT_TASK2 | The textbook addresses the affective connection between the student and the historical actor; there is a connection with the world of experiences of the student (in age or subject). | ‘Bertolf was only 10 years old when his parents gave him away to the monastery. They did this out of love for God … Create a tour around the monastery to show how Bertolf lived.’ |
| Addressing differences and similarities (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Nordgren and Johansson, 2015) |
PT_TASK3 | The HPT task addresses the similarities and differences between the historical perspective and the students’ own perspective. | ‘In your me-and-you-booklet show who you are … Compare yourself with a child from history.’ |
| Addressing the ethical dimension (Huijgen et al. 2022; Löfström et al., 2021) |
PT_TASK4 | The task asks to value (morally) the studied perspective; attention to values and norms (in the historical age or in the contemporary). | ‘According to you, was Genghis Khan a star or a villain?’ |
| Addressing multiperspectivity (Wansink et al., 2018) | PT_TASK5 | The task addresses the perspectives of multiple historical actors concerning a historical event (attention to multiperspectivity). | ‘We are going to compare the life of a worker at home with that of a factory worker.’ |
| PT_TASK6 | The task addresses multiple perspectives of contemporary people. | ‘Each year, Kazuki from Japan celebrates Kodomo no hi (the festive day for children). What do you think Kazuki’s parents wish for him on this day?’ | |
Coding scheme tasks
We mainly chose a deductive approach to design our coding scheme for tasks, deriving observable aspects of HPT from educational theory. However, based on the examples we encountered in our sample, the code PT_TASK6 (multiple contemporary perspectives) was added during the coding process. This data-driven, inductive approach of refining our coding scheme contributed to reaching a fuller understanding of the different ways textbooks in educational practice promote HPT (Braun and Clarke, 2006).
To strengthen the validity of our analytical tool, the first draft of our coding scheme was refined by gathering feedback from a panel of seven experts through a digital questionnaire. This panel consisted of three experienced history teachers in primary school, three teacher educators in history and one educational researcher in history, thus combining the input of teachers and academic experts (Pingel, 2010). The feedback of this panel resulted in the adjusting of HC_TASK1 (adding images and photos as source material to be used by students in performing HPT tasks) and the reconsideration of PT_TASK1 (use of imagination). This aspect was deemed questionable by three of the seven panellists, who preferred that students ground their answers in HPT tasks in historical knowledge rather than imagination. Ultimately, we did include aspect PT_TASK1 because of the plea for this approach in some educational theory (Santiago and Dozono, 2024; Skolnick et al., 2004) and the examples in our history textbooks we were expecting to encounter.
Coding scheme texts
To analyse the text fragments in our textbooks, we developed a simplified coding scheme through an inductive approach based on the examples of text fragments we encountered in our corpus of analysis. This resulted in five aspects of HPT in textbook texts (see Table 3), which can be considered clusters of the detailed aspects of HPT tasks.
Coding of aspects of HPT in textbook texts
| Aspects of historical contextualisation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Codes | Description | Examples of quotations from textbook texts |
| TEXT1 | The text describes the action and/or ideas of a historical person or group. | ‘William moved to Charles’s court in Brussels, where he studied Latin, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch.’ |
| TEXT2 | The actions and/or ideas of the historical person or group are clarified or explained using information about the historical context. | ‘At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Dutch territories were part of a large kingdom.’ |
| Aspects of perspective taking | ||
| TEXT3 | The text invites readers to place themselves in the historical situation. | ‘How would that have been for those explorers: travelling without knowing where you’re heading?’ |
| TEXT4 | The text presents a link between then and now: the actions and/or ideas of a historical person or group are being linked to actions/ideas in the present day. | ‘The Egyptians paid corn to the pharaohs. We pay taxes to our government.’ |
| TEXT5 | The text describes the action and/or ideas of a contemporary person or group. | ‘When there is a wedding in Uganda, women will come dressed in their Gomesi.’ |
Coding scheme teacher guides
Finally, through a deductive approach, we discerned three aspects to analyse the teacher guides of these textbooks and the way they facilitate and stimulate the role of the teacher in guiding the process of HPT (see Table 4). These aspects are derived from psychological and educational literature about the guiding of lessons concerning HPT activities, addressing the importance of interaction between students in this process (Endacott and Brooks, 2013). Gehlbach (2011, 2017) emphasises the importance of involving multiple minds through guided classroom discussions, which might lead to discussing multiple hypotheses, thus balancing certain biases and fostering more accurate perspective taking. Finally, we also looked at the way the teacher guides mention HPT as an explicit goal and provide further explanation about its relevance and how it could be taught (Stoel et al., 2015; Wilke et al., 2022).
Coding of aspects of guiding HPT in teacher guides
| Codes | Description | Examples of quotations from teacher guides |
|---|---|---|
| TG1 | The textbook or teacher guide promotes interaction about HPT between students. | ‘The students can discuss in dyads.’ |
| TG2 | The textbook or teacher guide promotes interaction between teacher and students (classroom discussions, dialogic learning). | ‘Didactical guideline: let the students think about the life of a Roman soldier. What did a soldier do on a regular day?’ |
| TG3.1 | The textbook or teacher guide mentions (historical) perspective taking as a goal of the lesson. | ‘The students are going to imagine the lives of two girls of that age, and will see that not so long ago children had to work in factories or plantations.’ |
| TG3.2 | The teacher guide explains the skill of HPT, describes the relevance of HPT or how to teach it. | ‘Make sure all students are able to imagine the people described [in the assignment], and that they can empathise with them to write a letter.’ |
Data analysis
Codes were applied to fragments of the textbooks using the software Atlas.ti (version 23). Multiple codes could be applied to one fragment. During the coding process, we switched between the two textbooks after completing the coding of a theme. Illustrations of the codings will be presented in the Results section.
The codings were primarily applied by the first author. To strive for intercoder reliability in the coding process, a second coder coded 10 per cent of the total sample. Between these two different coders, a mean agreement of 94 per cent was reached. On one code, the agreement was only 70 per cent; after checking, this discrepancy appeared to be the consequence of a typing error that could be adjusted.
To address our first and second research sub-questions, concerning (sub)components of HPT in textbook tasks (1a) and textbook texts (1b), we analysed the results by counting and comparing the totals of the codings for the different aspects. We counted how often the two components of our dual conceptualisation of HPT occurred in our sample: historical contextualisation as opposed to the aspects of perspective taking. To gain deeper insights into the relation between the different codings, we looked at co-occurrence of different codes. To address our third research sub-question (1c), concerning the way teacher guides facilitate teachers in their guiding of HPT, we counted the totals of the different codings and examined what the textbooks provided to facilitate the teachers in their guiding of HPT. We also compared some fragments in these teacher guides which present advice to teachers on how to teach HPT.
To address RQ2 concerning the differences between an integrated and a history-specific textbook we compared the difference in frequencies of the different codes. We also used some examples to discuss some differences between the two textbooks in more detail.
Results
In total, we coded 3,098 quotations of HPT-related fragments in our corpus of analysis, with all fragments receiving one or multiple codes. RQ1 addressed the way Dutch primary school history textbooks promote HPT. In answering this question, we will subsequently present our findings concerning the (sub)components of HPT in textbook tasks (RQ1a), textbook texts (RQ1b) and teacher guides (RQ1c).
RQ2 aimed to identify the main differences between an integrated textbook and a history-specific textbook concerning their presentation and promotion of HPT. We will address this question directly following the findings for tasks, texts and teacher guides.
Aspects of HPT in textbook tasks
RQ1a aimed to identify the (sub)components of HPT in textbook tasks. Table 5 shows the frequency of the codings of these (sub)components. In the following subsections, some examples of these codings will be presented.
Frequency aspects of HPT in textbook tasks
| Aspects of historical contextualisation | Frequency | Aspects of perspective taking | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| HC_TASK1: The textbook provides sources (textbook texts/images/primary/secondary sources) for students to use during the HPT task. |
448 I:142 HS:306 |
PT_TASK1: Students do not have to ground their answers in sources but make use of their own thinking/imagination. |
131 I:87 HS:44 |
| HC_TASK2: The textbook provides supporting questions to support the students in studying the properties of the sources. |
77 I:36 HS:41 |
PT_TASK2: The textbook addresses the affective connection between the student and the historical actor; there is a connection with the world of experiences of the student (in age or subject). |
160 I:66 HS:94 |
| HC_TASK3: The textbook pays attention to the chronological context of the subject of the task. |
354 I:117 HS:237 |
PT_TASK3: The HPT task addresses the similarities and differences between the historical perspective and the students’ own perspective. |
45 I:29 HS:16 |
| HC_TASK4: The textbook pays attention to the spatial/geographical context of the subject of the task. |
73 I:51 HS:22 |
PT_TASK4: The task asks students to value (morally) the studied perspective; attention is paid to values and norms (in the historical age or in the contemporary). |
40 I:33 HS:7 |
| HC_TASK5: The textbook pays attention to the political/economical or cultural context of the subject of the task. |
397 I:112 HS:285 |
PT_TASK5: The task addresses the perspectives of multiple historical actors concerning a historical event (attention to multiperspectivity). |
114 I:26 HS:88 |
| HC_TASK6 The task involves the explanation and contextualisation of the contemporary age. |
8 I:5 HS:3 |
PT_TASK6: The task addresses multiple perspectives of contemporary people. |
20 I:17 HS:3 |
| TOTAL |
1,357 (I:463; HS:894) |
510 (I:258; HS:252) |
-
Notes: I = integrated textbook, HS = history-specific textbook
The codes representing aspects of historical contextualisation (HC_TASK1 – HC_TASK6) were applied 1,357 times across different tasks in the two textbooks. The codes representing aspects of perspective taking (PT_TASK1 – PT_TASK6) were applied 510 times. This means 73 per cent of the codings of HPT tasks concern aspects of historical contextualisation and 27 per cent concern aspects of perspective taking.
When we analysed which codes occurred simultaneously within tasks, the co-occurrence of HC_TASK1 (use of sources) and PT_TASK1 (use of imagination) stood out. Although these might appear opposing aspects, adhering to different approaches of HPT, they co-occur 31 times across both textbooks. This becomes visible in an example from the integrated textbook Blink Wereld (grades 5–6 B, theme 4, Climate experts): after hearing a radio fragment about the 1953 Dutch North Sea flood (use of sources), students are asked: ‘Would you worry if you heard this?’ (use of imagination). This co-occurrence of codes showed that textbook tasks sometimes showed rich examples of HPT, combining aspects of historical contextualisation as well as aspects of perspective taking.
Differences between integrated and history-specific textbooks
When examining the codings concerning historical contextualisation, some differences were observed between the integrated and the history-specific textbooks. Codes that occurred roughly twice as often in tasks in the history-specific textbook are HC_TASK1 (use of sources), HC_TASK3 (attention to chronological context) and HC_TASK5 (attention to political/economical/cultural context). In contrast, code HC_TASK4 (attention to spatial/geographical context) occurred more than twice as often in the integrated textbook.
Concerning aspects of perspective taking, a mixed image between the textbooks occurred: PT_TASK1 (use of imagination) occurred twice as often in the integrated textbook, PT_TASK5 (multiple historical perspectives) occurred more than three times as often in the history-specific textbook. PT_TASK4 (valuing of perspectives) is applied 33 times in the integrated textbook and only seven times in the history-specific textbook. Next to this difference in frequency, some qualitative differences also became apparent. One task from the integrated textbook addressed the actions of Genghis Khan; at the beginning of this lesson students were asked: ‘According to you, was Genghis Khan a villain or a star? What do you think? Your answer doesn’t have to be correct; you’re going to investigate this lesson.’ After some information about the actions of Genghis Khan, students were presented with a multiple-choice task (see Box 1).
Box 1. Example of code PT_TASK4 (valuing of perspectives) (Source: Blink Wereld, grades 7–8 A, theme 1, World stars)
Watch the movie clip on the digital board. Write down in keywords what you see.
My view of Genghis Khan:
• A famous star who conquered big parts of the world in a short period of time
• A villain who caused a lot of casualties
• Otherwise, namely:…
[At the end of this lesson, students are asked again:]
Star or villain? What do you think?
What does the class think?
An example of this same code PT_TASK4 (valuing of perspectives) from the history-specific textbook addressed the rules and laws citizens in medieval cities had to follow. After learning some of these rules, students were asked to value these: ‘Which rule from the era of cities and states do you find the strangest? Why?’ Although both examples invited students to value historical behaviour or practices, and hence were attributed the same code, the task about Genghis Khan explicitly asked students to morally label the historical agent as villain or star. We did not encounter such questions in the history-specific textbook.
Aspects of HPT in textbook texts
RQ1b aimed to identify the (sub)components of HPT in textbook texts. Table 6 shows the frequency of the codings of these (sub)components.
Frequency aspects of HPT in textbook texts
| Aspects of historical contextualisation | Frequency |
| TEXT1: The text describes the action and/or ideas of a historical person or group. |
1,183 I:520/HS:663 |
| TEXT2: The actions and/or ideas of the historical person or group are clarified or explained using information about the historical context. |
594 I:260/HS:334 |
| TOTAL |
1,777 I:780/HS:997 |
| Aspects of perspective taking | Frequency |
| TEXT3: The text invites readers to place themselves in the historical situation. |
25 I:16/HS:9 |
| TEXT4: The text presents a link between then and now: the actions and/or ideas of a historical person or group are linked to actions/ideas in the present day. |
25 I:11/ HS:14 |
| TEXT5: The text describes the action and/or ideas of a contemporary person or group. |
148 I:128/HS:20 |
| TOTAL |
198 I:155/HS:43 |
-
Notes: I = integrated textbook, HS = history-specific textbook
The aspect most found was TEXT1 (description of historical perspectives). Aspects TEXT2 (explanation of historical perspectives), TEXT3 (invitation to take a historical perspective) and TEXT4 (link between then and now) occurred in decreasing frequency. These codes subsequently show more elaborate aspects of HPT than TEXT1, which only describes actions and/or ideas of a historical person or group.
Although texts in these primary history textbooks presented historical perspectives relatively often, the low frequency of TEXT3 (invitation to take a historical perspective) and TEXT4 (link between then and now) show that these texts did not often explicitly invite the readers to place themselves in the historical situation or present a link between then and now. Text fragments with three or more codes, thus presenting a ‘rich’ example of HPT in the reading process, only occurred four times. We present one of these from each textbook. The example that follows from the integrated textbook addressed the presence of French soldiers in the German city Essen, and it displays co-occurrence of the codes TEXT1 (description of historical perspectives), TEXT2 (explanation of historical perspectives) and TEXT3 (invitation to take a historical perspective):
In 1923 French soldiers rode their bikes through the streets of Essen in Germany. For the Germans, that was very exceptional. Just imagine: you recently lost a war and then the army of the former enemy comes cycling through your town to keep an eye on things! (Blink Wereld, grades 7–8 B, theme 4, War and peace, lesson 1)
The example below from the history-specific textbook displays co-occurrence of the codes TEXT1 (description of historical perspectives), TEXT2 (explanation of historical perspectives), TEXT4 (link between then and now) and TEXT5 (description of contemporary perspectives). In this fragment, the fictional child character who guides the students through the textbook describes a visit to his grandmother:
Grandma told that [her sister] Catharina used to take care of ill people in the monastery. Other nuns taught lessons … ‘Just as in the old days,’ I said. It is remarkable that nowadays people live just like a thousand years ago. A monastery like that is just like a time machine. ‘Can we go there?,’ I asked. ‘Not now,’ grandma said. ‘But nearby is a church from the era of monks and knights, which you are so fond of. You could go there one time.’ (Brandaan, grades 7–8, theme 3, Rise of Christianity, introduction)
Differences between integrated and history-specific textbooks
All five discerned aspects of HPT in textbook texts occurred in the two history textbooks we analysed. Only in the coding of TEXT5 (description of contemporary perspectives) we found a substantial difference between the integrated and history-specific textbook (I:128, HS:20). This means the integrated textbook gives more examples of describing contemporary perspectives.
Aspects of guiding HPT in textbook teacher guides
RQ1c aimed to learn how teacher guides facilitate the teacher in their guiding of HPT. Table 7 shows the frequency of the codings of four discerned aspects in teacher guides.
Frequency aspects of guiding HPT in teacher guides
| Code | Description | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| TG1 | The textbook or teacher guide promotes interaction about HPT between students. |
26 I:10/HS:16 |
| TG2 | The textbook or teacher guides promotes interaction between teacher and students (classroom discussions, dialogic learning). |
157 I:16/HS:141 |
| TG3.1 | The textbook or teacher guide mentions (historical) perspective taking as a goal of the lesson. |
47 I:35/HS:12 |
| TG3.2 | The teacher guide explains the skill of HPT, describes the relevance of HPT or describes how to teach it. |
14 I:7/HS:7 |
| Total | 244 | |
-
Notes: I = integrated textbook, HS = history-specific textbook
When we consider the frequency of different codes in the instructions for teachers, codes TG1 (promoting student interaction) and TG3.2 (explanation relevance of HPT) occurred roughly as often in both history textbooks.
Differences between integrated and history-specific textbooks
Some differences between the two textbooks become apparent in code TG2 (promoting student–teacher interaction), which occurs far more often in the history-specific textbook. Code TG3.1 (HPT as a goal) occurs nearly three times more often in the integrated textbook; this seems at odds with the results for HPT tasks, where we found that the history-specific textbook displayed more examples of tasks that address aspects of HPT (mostly in subcomponents of historical contextualisation).
The two examples that follow show codings of TG3.2 (explanation relevance of HPT) from both textbooks. However, the instructions to teachers that these teacher guides offer differ significantly. The example from the integrated textbook accompanies a task in which students are prompted to write a letter home, as if they were a First World War soldier. The teacher guide emphasises the importance of taking into account the feelings of the soldier:
Make sure all students can conceive somewhat with the people described [in the assignment], and that they can empathise with them to write a letter. Also tell the students what you would write yourself. In doing this, take into account the feelings and emotions that a First World War soldier could have experienced, and what he would have liked to tell. (Blink Wereld, grades 7–8 B, theme 1, Fantastic families, lesson 1)
In contrast, the example from the history-specific textbook teacher guide emphasises the difficulty of imagining the beliefs and worldview of a seventeenth-century person and the importance of students realising these large differences. The advice in the teacher guide accompanies a task where students think about people who had different interests in the distribution of power in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic:
It is important that students realise that people in the past had different beliefs and saw the world in a different way than we do nowadays, because their surroundings and experiences were different to ours. With this, the children specifically practise critical thinking and social and cultural skills. (Brandaan, grades 7–8, theme 6, Growth in the Dutch Golden Age)
In these examples a noticeable difference between the two textbooks becomes clear. The teacher guide from the history-specific textbook contends that precisely in the difficulty of empathising with people from different historical periods, an opportunity arises to practise critical thinking. This contrasts with the teacher guide of the integrated textbook, which emphasises the possibility and the importance of taking into account the feelings of a First World War soldier.
Discussion and conclusions
This article aimed to shed light on the different ways Dutch history textbooks in primary school promote HPT. We used a dual conceptualisation of HPT, incorporating different theoretical approaches. Unlike other textbook studies (see Kropman et al., 2020), we included tasks, texts and teacher guides in our corpus of analysis to gain a deeper understanding of how these textbooks promote HPT and how they support teachers.
RQ1 addressed the ways in which primary school history textbooks promote HPT. We analysed which (sub)components of our dual conceptualisation we encountered in tasks (RQ1a), texts (RQ1b) and teacher guides (RQ1c). Our main findings for RQ1a reveal that textbook tasks showed examples of both components of our conceptualisation of HPT, historical contextualisation and perspective taking. The opposing codes HC_TASK1 (use of sources) and PT_TASK1 (use of imagination) appeared in both textbooks, and even co-occurred 31 times, through tasks that addressed aspects of historical contextualisation as well as perspective taking. The textbooks also displayed imaginative exercises about historical perspectives, opposing the strong warning by Seixas (2017) about this ‘common pedagogical error’ (p. 621). The textbooks also seem to ignore Wilschut and Schiphorst’s (2019) argument to ‘take leave as much as possible of one’s own standards and values’ (p. 74). Rather, the textbook tasks addressed the position and values of the students and began with ‘where students are’ (Dulberg, 2005, p. 523). Our findings demonstrate that tasks in primary school history textbooks are not easily categorised in solely one side of our dual conceptualisation of HPT. In addressing aspects of both components of our conceptualisation, the tasks in our corpus displayed different HPT approaches simultaneously.
Our main findings concerning RQ1b demonstrate that texts in textbooks did not display many rich examples of HPT. The low frequency of codes TEXT3 (invitation to take a historical perspective) and TEXT4 (link between then and now) indicates texts often mentioned some historical perspectives, but did not explicitly invite the reader to place themselves in the situation of the historical person or explicitly create a link between then and now. What happens internally when children read a mere description of a historical perspective, without further support or questions, lies beyond the scope of this current article. Van Silfhout (2014), who discusses text difficulty and effective features of educational texts, describes that (fictional) historical characters in texts might hinder reading comprehension in terms of reproducing information. However, engaging in HPT demands more from a reader than reproducing information. Deliberate effort and motivation are required for successful HPT (Gehlbach, 2004, 2017). These findings suggest there is opportunity for editors of educational textbooks to incorporate richer texts, which do more than briefly mention historical perspectives, but actively invite and support readers to consider these perspectives.
Our main findings for RQ1c suggest that the teacher guides we analysed partly support teachers in their guiding of the process of HPT. Across our corpus, covering four years of history teaching in primary school, code TG1 (promoting student interaction) was attributed only 26 times. This means teachers were rarely invited to encourage their students to interact about the discussed historical perspectives, while precisely this act of involving multiple minds might lead to discussing multiple hypotheses, the balancing of certain biases and thus more accurate perspective taking (Gehlbach, 2011). Besides this, although across the two textbooks the teacher guides mention HPT as a goal of the lesson 47 times (code TG3.1), HPT is explained in terms of its relevance or how to teach it only 14 times (TG3.2).
RQ2 addressed the main differences between an integrated textbook and a history-specific textbook, concerning their promotion of HPT. One difference appeared in the way tasks asked students to ground answers in sources or in their own imagination. The history-specific textbook provided sources for students to ground their answers twice as often, and the integrated textbook prompted students to use their imagination twice as often. Another contrast became apparent in the way students were invited in tasks to morally value historical perspectives. This type of questioning, which corresponds with HPT as a vehicle for lessons about the ethical dimension (Löfström et al., 2021), occurred far more often in the integrated textbook.
Concerning the text fragments in our sample, a difference between the textbooks appeared when perspectives of contemporary people were addressed. The integrated textbook showed far more examples of these text fragments than the history-specific textbook (128 versus 20 codings). This can be attributed to the thematic approach of the integrated textbook, where historical goals were blended with geographical goals, sometimes resulting in an overlap of historical and contemporary people and their perspectives. This combination of goals from multiple disciplines might contribute to a less clear image of HPT as part of a historical explanation, which would include attention to the historical context and the use of historical sources and chronology.
The difference in the way HPT is promoted between our two textbooks also became visible in the accompanying teacher guides. The teacher guide of the integrated textbook instructed teachers to emphasise the importance of considering the feelings of a First World War soldier. In contrast, the teacher guide of the history-specific textbook emphasised the difficulty of imagining the beliefs and worldview of a historical person, and the importance of students realising this. In doing so, the history-specific textbook seems to advocate a more distant approach to history (Seixas and Morton 2013; Wilschut and Schiphorst, 2019), highlighting the difficulty of imagining the worldviews of historical people and hence resorting to the use of sources for students to ground their answers. The integrated textbook seems to involve the position of the students more, inviting them to imagine the feelings of a First World War soldier in the trenches or a contemporary child in another part of the world, and explicitly asking them to morally value the historical perspectives presented (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Skolnick et al., 2004). In these differences, both textbooks foster partly different goals through the way they promote HPT.
Main implications and suggestions for further research
Our results concerning the way primary school history textbooks promote HPT may impact the choices made by teachers and textbook editors. History educators contend that through practising and attempting HPT, the study of history provides fertile ground to foster citizenship goals for children in a diverse society (Barton and Levstik, 2004; Endacott and Brooks, 2013; Fertig, 2005). However, our findings show that different textbooks promote different approaches of HPT, leaning more towards historical contextualisation or perspective taking. This raises the question of which citizenship goals exactly are to be fostered through history education. Contextualisation and grounding answers in source evidence might be considered important citizenship competencies, just as much as thinking about and dealing with different perspectives. Therefore, it is important that textbook editors are explicit about how they approach HPT, which goals they envision through their tasks and texts, and how these may tie in with fostering citizenship competencies. Considering texts, future research might address the difference in learning outcomes between reading short texts in history textbooks versus reading more elaborate and richer texts, in, for example, historical youth literature. An inductive approach based on these richer texts might also lead to a more elaborate coding scheme to capture how these texts promote HPT. Research in this direction might benefit from insights considering the concept of transformative reading (see Fialho, 2019).
Ultimately, it is of decisive importance that teachers make conscious and informed decisions about which goals they want to pursue with their history lessons and the textbooks they use. Ideally, teachers should adjust their teaching approach to their own school context and the historical subject at hand, sometimes leaning towards a more distant approach where the sources are leading, sometimes with more attention to the position of the students and their value-laden thinking about historical perspectives. However, to be able to do this, teachers need some level of expertise in history teaching. Further research on the development of primary school teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge considering the teaching of HPT is necessary to describe what support or professionalisation is suitable for this group of primary school teachers.
Limitations
This article aimed to analyse the materials used in Dutch primary school history textbooks (focusing on tasks and texts) and the support provided for teachers in the guiding of HPT (through the teacher guides of these textbooks). We did not conduct interviews with textbook editors about their choices and approach. This might have added to a richer understanding of the way textbook editors envision their approach of HPT. However, we were primarily interested in the actual materials primary teachers are provided with in educational practice. Classroom observation aimed at discovering how teachers apply and use these materials would provide a valuable addition to this research.
In our dual conceptualisation of HPT, we placed the concept of HPT at the intersection of two components – historical contextualisation and perspective taking – and proposed that, in its ideal form, HPT attempts should display aspects of both components. In our sample, we encountered tasks that could be categorised all along the spectrum of our conceptualisation, sometimes more oriented towards historical contextualisation, sometimes more towards perspective taking, and sometimes covering both components in one task. However, it could be argued that tasks that belong more in the perspective-taking side of our conceptualisation have little to do with HPT as part of a historical explanation (see Seixas’s (2017) remarks about a ‘common pedagogical error’ (p. 621)). In this article, instead of denouncing these imaginative tasks as errors, we consciously chose to include these ‘imaginative exercises’ in our analysis, with the purpose of giving a realistic image of educational practice in Dutch primary history classrooms, guided by the primary history textbooks that are used.
Another limitation of this research might be the fine-grained coding scheme we used to analyse tasks, addressing 12 (sub)components of HPT. This approach resulted in a detailed understanding of how these tasks may engage students in different components of contextualisation and perspective taking and therefore potentially foster different types of learning. However, for a study aimed at evaluating the quality of different tasks in textbooks, a less detailed and more holistic coding scheme would suffice.
To be able to clearly and transparently discuss which approach one would choose for a certain history textbook or history course, it might prove helpful at first to avoid using the charged and complex concept of HPT, but rather speak more neutrally of ‘dealing with historical perspectives’. This puts forward the different options of how to deal with these perspectives, be it through the approach of historical contextualisation, including the use of historical context, sources and chronology; through the more accessible approach of perspective taking, starting from the position of the student; or through a conscious and balanced combination of these two approaches. Eventually, through the encounter and conversation with historical perspectives, students should be challenged to expand their thinking beyond their own well-known and recognisable world (Nilsen, 2016). In doing so, HPT might contribute to citizens who look further than the echo chambers of their own thoughts (Sandahl, 2020).
Funding
Funding was provided by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), Doctoral Grant for Teachers, PvL 2021-II.
Data and materials availability statement
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Declarations and conflicts of interest
Research ethics statement
The authors declare that research ethics approval for this article was provided by the ethical committee of the Department of Teacher Education of the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen.
Consent for publication statement
Not applicable to this article.
Conflicts of interest statement
The authors declare no conflicts of interest with this work. All efforts to sufficiently anonymise the authors during peer review of this article have been made. The authors declare no further conflicts with this article.
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