Zur Praxis und Reflexion historischen Schreibens im Geschichtsunterricht: Fallbasierte Ergebnisse einer Interviewstudie mit Lehrkräften an Deutschschweizer Gymnasien

Abstract

This paper refers to the field of historical writing in upper secondary school and examines history teacher’s didactical measures and reflections on fostering and assessing and furthermore their beliefs about and objectives followed with writing in their history classes. The design bases on half-structured interviews with ten Swiss High School history teachers. The interviews were evaluated with a qualitative content analysis. Two teachers with above-average writing activities but different approaches to writing in history classes were taken as case studies. Results suggest, that all history teachers use writing activities in their lessons, but in different ways and to a different extent. They try to foster historical writing with a variety of methods, often mirroring indirect approaches such as oral forms of exercise and feedback. On the other hand, they also frequently name obstacles in daily education, most notably a lack of time. Moreover, teachers seem to believe, that historical writing basically can be fostered. Nonetheless, some of them argue that there are limitating parameters such as natural ability. Despite teachers’ attitude, that history education generally should support the purpose of developing historical thinking, their writing activities in history classes don’t seem to be embedded in this overall didactical intention. In conclusion, data indicate, that despite a variety of different writing practices, teachers don’t view historical writing as a genuine part of historical learning. Finally, the paper is making a case for historical writing as an important aspect of history teacher’s beliefs in future research.