Current conflicts and increasing tensions in international politics as well as within countries are often intimately intertwined with historical experiences that carry a heavy moral charge. Today, history teaching in democratic nations is often expected to develop students’ critical and multi-perspectival thinking, and their commitment to democratic values and human rights. On the other hand, history teaching can and has also served as an instrument of anti-democratic thinking and chauvinist ideas.

This series provides an overview, as well as a deeper historical understanding, of intersections of historical and democratic consciousness by exploring the background of how understanding of democracy as an aim and as content in history education has developed, circa 1945 to the present.

This special series aims to explore, in-depth, mode of relating to temporality (historical consciousness), and commitments to democracy as a complex set of historically-charged values, ideas, and practices (democratic consciousness), providing a nuanced road-map of democratic ideas in history education, as well as directions for educational practice across a range of countries and national contexts.

Articles are published open access and can be read freely online by anyone; please see the article list below.

Publication date: from the 29th October 2025

Editors

Prof Jan Löfström, University of Turku, Finland
Prof Heather Sharp, The University of Newcastle, Australia

Articles

Research article

Never the two shall meet? Connecting historical and democratic consciousness in Canadian K-12 history textbooks

Sara Karn, Kristina R Llewellyn and Penney Clark

2025-10-29 Volume 22 • Issue 1 • 2025

Also a part of:

Special series: Democratic resilience and regression in history education since 1945

A vote for Australian democratic consciousness: teaching civics through history

David Nally, Steven Kolber and Keith Heggart

2025-11-05 Volume 22 • Issue 1 • 2025

Also a part of:

Special series: Democratic resilience and regression in history education since 1945

Orientation in time and world through history and civic education: curricular frameworks and teachers’ perspectives in Austria

Heike Krösche

2025-12-02 Volume 22 • Issue 1 • 2025

Also a part of:

Special series: Democratic resilience and regression in history education since 1945