Researching History Teachers’ Beliefs.

Current International Trends and a System of Categories for History Education Research

Abstract

This article deals with a field of empirical history education research, which is currently attracting increased attention within the German-speaking and the international communities – namely history teachers’ beliefs. It is argued that although beliefs of history teachers are examined in many research projects, we do not have a common understanding of the construct. There is no widely accepted system of categories to which empirical research could relate. This article provides such a system with the aim of facilitating academic discussion about history teachers’ beliefs. I will present central topics and lines of discussion within the international empirical literature about history teachers’ beliefs, drawing on a literature review of 40 published articles in English, German and Spanish. Furthermore, some results from my own empirical project about the beliefs of Austrian history teachers are concisely presented. Based on a category system and a literature review, the contribution will finally discuss promising fields for future research on history teachers’ beliefs.