Vojtech Ripka1; Josef Řídký2; 1 Institute for the Study of Totalitarian regimes, Czech Republic; 2 The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Czech Republic
Discussion
Throughout the last 15 years, there have been recurring calls to upgrade both teaching objectives of history education and its teaching and learning methods. Key motive of these demands is a better connection to the students: increase inclusiveness through establishing connections between the history education and life-worlds of current students. Our attempts to implement what Innes calls dynamic literacy and Nordic countries are implementing as use-of-history have been imprinted in the design and content of HistoryLab, a teaching and learning online app. The robust data on the development and from 2020 its widespread use allows us to analyze the way students approach different historical topics and to probe into the propensity of different topics of state socialist history of Czechoslovakia to connect to the life worlds of current Czech students. In our paper, we offer qualitative insight into some of the prevailing conceptions of totalitarianism, state socialism and the past in general among today’s (Czech) students. The empirical basis consists of a sample of a pool of over 30 000 filled-in online activities. Moreover, these completed activities have also served similarly to vignettes in qualitative research to instigate answers to an open question on other thoughts on the topic as a final step.
