Introduction

This special issue contributes to a growing international dialogue on historical consciousness and its manifold implications for research and pedagogy in the area of history education. It questions general mind-sets that exert influence in the field and seeks to expand the boundaries of what scholars are currently doing. Holding the promise to build on historical consciousness’ general appeal, the aim is to find ways to tap into its full potential and to capture its workings as a social phenomenon that is basic to everyday human needs. Most scholars would agree that people’s understandings of the past, or rather of history’s workings, strongly impact individuals’ ability to navigate the world and to orient themselves temporally. Yet when it comes to being more precise in defining and operationalising historical consciousness, its elusive nature becomes apparent, making the whole process all the more challenging. Sometimes, a reliance on standard interpretations for conceptualizing historical consciousness contributes to such difficulties. Other times, it is a conflation of historical consciousness’ relevance and workings with other important concepts, such as historical thinking, without recognizing and questioning differences and tensions between them, that does so. Add to this the complexity of translating all that emerges into something pedagogically workable and of relevance to learners’ overall interests, then you have an entanglement that is hard to redress and that risks taking historical consciousness’ workings for granted