What can the teaching of history do? On the use of sources in the classroom

Abstract

The authors discuss in this paper the use of historical sources in the classroom. This article mainly deals with the purposes and at the same time, the incorporation into the classroom of one of the most important phenomena of contemporary historiography, the so-called “documentary revolution.” Thus the concern of the authors is to discuss how history taught in the classroom may become part of the movement of “criticizing the document”, and to think of and offer educational alternatives that include the ability to use, in daily history classes, the same sources with which the researchers make up reports of the past. We start from the assumption that the use of sources in the teaching of history may be an appropriate and productive strategy to teach history to individuals who do not wish to become historians, but for whom the knowledge of history can make a difference in understanding the world in which they live.