History students’ conceptions of history

Authors

• Anna Veijola Jyväskylän yliopisto
• Simo Mikkonen

Abstract

This article focused on university freshmen majoring in history and their conceptions of history as an academic subject at the beginning of their studies. We also examined possible changes in their ideas during the first semester. The data comprised students’ (N=27) essays entitled “History and me”, coupled with online discussions based on collective stories compiled from the original essays. Students’ original essays generally reflected narrow conceptions of history. On one hand, the essays underlined history as a fact-based subject; on the other hand, the past was seen as something nostalgic, and it was personalised and approached, for example, through family stories. Online discussions towards the end of the semester highlighted that students had started to ponder or deepen their understanding about the nature of historical knowledge formation and its relativity.