School knowledge’s and the historical consciousness concept

Abstract

This theoretical paper attempts to confront and seek the intersections between the concepts of school knowledge and historical consciousness. It identifies ontological foundations of the first concept with support in the reflections of FREIRE (1987) and MCLAREN (1997), and reviews some authors argue about it in history. The concept of school knowledge is placed in relation to the concept of historical consciousness highlighting some aspects of the work of CHEVALLARD (2009), taking into account that didactic transposition is a transitive reflection between the didactics of mathematics and of other disciplines, with theoretical and methodological advantages for educational reflection. Historical consciousness, in turn, is contextualized in its current impact on the history didactics with the support of texts of BERGMANN (1989/1990), LAVILLE (2005) and RÜSEN (2007). We finally seek for the points of contact between these perspectives, as the paradigm of teaching and learning as knowledge in relationship, instead of transmission and absorption of knowledge, and also the allocation of science as part of practical life, rather than a separate instance. We recognize the role of didactic transposition process in fitting out a traditional way of thinking the scholar contents, which is beside the notion of traditional way of generating historical sense, a support for deep understanding of the difficulties in teaching innovation, that is the theme that underpin the reflections that gave context to the concepts of school knowledge and historical consciousness.