Learning history in early childhood: Teaching methods and children’s understanding

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about children's history learning by investigating how ECEC centres teach history, how children respond to the teaching, and what kind of understanding of history and historical time children express.

The author finds that the ECEC centres have developed various methods to teach history, and that the ECEC teachers have positive experiences with children's ability to acquire knowledge of history at a young age. The results show that especially physical and bodily experiences as well as focus on the children's own life stories stimulate children's interest in and understanding of history. Moreover, the study shows that ECEC teachers observe that some of the older children (5-6 years of age) have developed an emerging historical consciousness, and they begin to tell stories about some of their own experiences. According to the teachers, the children express an understanding of historical time. According to the researcher, this indicates that teaching history in early childhood education and care can lay the foundation for children's development of historical consciousness at school. Furthermore, the researcher points out that the results reflect that the curriculum goals regarding history teaching in early childhood education and care are realistic, and underline the importance of learning history at a young age.

The study is based on individual interviews with eight ECEC teachers from five different ECEC centres. The interviews lasted between one hour and one hour and twenty minutes. The teachers were asked about the content, methods and tools used in their history teaching, and about how the children responded to the teaching. All interviews were transcribed and analysed using an interpretative phenomenological approach, and on the basis of theories of history didactics.

Skjæveland, Y. (2017). Learning history in early childhood: Teaching methods and children’s understanding. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 18(1), 8-22.