Enseñar a escribir sobre la historia

The construction of historical knowledge will never have enough impact on the growing minds of youths if the historical culture produced by historians is not passed on, with its own characteristics, to school knowledge and the teaching-learning process. To this end, teachers must become aware of the importance of the historical text in the construction of knowledge. In the Italian educational system, during their training teachers have never had the chance to address the structure of the historical text and to face the specific problems posed by its construction. The historical text, therefore, is regarded as a mere source of information. My own opposition to this way of thinking has led me to investigate the problem of text-writing as a function of the learning process. In this essay, I will discuss the importance of teaching students how to deconstruct the historical text written by professional historians, so that they can study how to transpose it and learn to write their own historical texts. I will do it first of all by highlighting the main role of the historical text and the importance of its specific structure, both in historical research and in the teaching and learning of history.