Local history:

A research and teaching strategy

Author: Pedro Gregorio Enriquez / Professor at the National University of San Luis. Argentina

SUMMARY

This work highlights the importance of including local history in the curriculum. To
do this, the complex relationship that exists between daily life, narration and history
and its consequences in the field of history teaching are analyzed, then a general
framework of reference is created that guides the integration of local history. at
school and, finally, a research and teaching proposal is prepared.

KEYWORDS
Local history / Research / Teaching

1. Introduction

Including local history in the school curriculum is not a simple task, since there are
many and varied difficulties that must be faced. It is not the intention to identify all
the problems or propose all the possible solutions , but simply to provide
some reflections that will allow the creation of a framework of general reference
and prepare a preliminary work proposal .

Taking these initial considerations into account, we will try to:

■ Analyze the relationship established between everyday life, narration and
history and its consequences in the field of history teaching.
■ Create a framework around the inclusion of local history in school .
■ Build a research and teaching proposal aimed at the recovery of local
history.

2. Everyday life, narration and history and teaching of history

This section makes a brief reference to the relationships between narration ,

everyday life and history that have been produced in the different fields of
science . i as social and , subsequently , its consequences in the field of
education are analyzed .

For a long time, narrative and everyday life have had little relevance in the field of
social research; However , in recent times a growing concern about this
problem has crossed the different fields of study. Thus in philosophy Ricouer
(1999); in anthropology Greertz (1987); In sociology Ferraroti (1990), among
others, have advocated and celebrated the return to the biographical, revaluing
the concrete human being as an object of study.

2.1. Narration and history

Regarding the relationship between narration and history, divergent and apparently
antagonistic positions have been raised. For a long time, narrative history was
criticized for simplifying and reducing history to a chronology of isolated events,
which prevented us from understanding its complexity.
Starting in the 1960s, American oral historians began to worry about uniting these
two dimensions, understanding that narrative is an excellent starting point for
building scientific knowledge in the field of historical research. Ronal Grele (cited
by Hagen Ulrike, 1988), for example, has argued that narration radically changes
the way of studying history, to the extent that it allows us to understand the
consciousness of the subjects .

In the 1970s, Paul Veyne, from philosophy, assumed a more radical position than
that of oral historians. In his work referring to the writing of history he maintained
that: "historical explanation (...) is almost indistinguishable from the genre of
explanation that is practiced in daily life or in a novel where a life is recounted."
(cited by Chirino, 1992:15).

This perspective, with more or less radicality in terms of its approaches , aims
to organize history based on the senses and meanings that subjects attribute to
historical events, to which narration is the best strategy . The expression
where there is no narrator, there is no story summarizes the position of this
current of thought .

2.2. The everyday and history

The relationship between everyday life and history has also been problematic.
The traditional approach has understood history as a chronology of political and
military events, with its protagonist being the elite linked to political and military
power at different times (Rinaldi et al., 1996). From this perspective , only
ascendant historical facts are recovered and only the history of great people is
told. The everyday and the other subjects that construct and reconstruct the
social world have little relevance, because they are considered banal, opaque,
lacking any cognitive value (Ferraroti, 1990 ) .

In recent times, different authors have reconsidered the place of the everyday in
history. Thus , Ferraroti (1990 ) advocates the inclusion of the everyday in history,
so that history is everyone's history. Heller (1992), for his part, proposes that
everyday life is not outside of history, but at the center of historical events. From
his perspective, the great non-everyday feats reported in history books start from
everyday life and return to it.

As can be seen, these considerations establish a strong relationship between

these two aspects, thus preventing history from becoming abstract and
dehumanized.

2.3. Storytelling and everyday life

Narrative constitutes the most appropriate access route to deeply understand

human life. Habermas ( 1987 ) proposes to build the concept of the everyday
world of life . , based on the narrative presentations of the social actors. This
simple strategy allows us to understand how different social subjects organize,
interpret and give meaning to their historical existence .

2.4. Consequences of the discussion in the teaching of history

The reconsideration of perspectives on narration and daily life in different social

fields has important consequences in the teaching of history , because it allows:
 ■ Link the narrative with the story. Jacott and Carretero ( 1995) maintain that
narrativity is an essential characteristic of historical knowledge, therefore
it should be considered one of the key aspects in the teaching of history. Its
exclusion impoverishes the view and eliminates the singularity of social
events.
■ Articulate everyday life with history . Daily life cannot be ignored or ignored in
the teaching of history. Orrade de López et al (1994) warn that
understanding everyday life will allow access to the complexity of the
analysis of historical processes. According to these authors, in everyday life
the concrete life of people takes place , in which conflicts , achievements
, joys and sadnesses appear that reflect the creations of human beings .
■ Include narration and daily life as the substantive core of local history ,
restoring the voices that had been ignored and excluded from official
texts. The narration of daily life in local history offers the possibility of
studying in greater depth the lifestyles , beliefs and values of common
people , configuring it as a cone socially relevant foundation . From this
framework, the challenge is to teach a story where the real subjects are the
true protagonists.

3. A general framework of reference for teaching history

local

It is important to ask ourselves here: what sense does it make to introduce local
history into the school curriculum? New key questions arise from this axis, such as:
why should local history be included in school? What content should be taught?
And how to teach local history at school? The answers to these questions provide
a general framework of reference and some criteria to address this problem
didactically.

3.1. Why should local history be included in the school curriculum ?

There are some reasons that justify its inclusion. In this work only three strong
reasons will be analyzed. They are:

Firstly, it can be noted that students socialized through the formal educational
system give little relevant space to the systematic teaching of local history. Usually
this content is addressed in a unit during the 4th year of Basic General Education
and, eventually, in some school events, especially those associated with the
founding of the town, or another significant date of the community. It is worth
saying, then, that the history of the immediate context that surrounds the
students is not treated in depth during their formative process .

The inclusion of local history in the school curriculum would undoubtedly

contribute to the construction of social and cultural identity, facilitating the creation
and recreation of values, customs and beliefs that each of these societies
considers transcendent, avoiding the devaluation of their own culture and
history.

Secondly, in the last 30 years, what has been socialized by the mass media has
distanced subjects from local and everyday concerns. Radio, newspapers and
especially television have a strong influence on the socialization process of
subjects. These media usually provide little information about local historical
events, distancing people from the possibility of conceptually reflecting on their
own history.
The inclusion of local history would promote the identification and recognition of
one's own, placing the subjects in a different way compared to the information
provided by the mass media.

Thirdly, traditional history teaching does not stimulate the curiosity of educational
subjects to know and investigate their roots. This educational model, which still
persists in a large part of schools, has focused its efforts on the mere transmission
of a body of information organized for students to reproduce (Pozo et al., 1989).
The memorization of data, ideas, facts, etc. without establishing substantive
relationships between them, it is the preferred learning strategy.

The inclusion of local history in the school curriculum would promote the use of
historical research methodology, and as a consequence, it would stimulate
analysis, creativity and criticism as necessary thought processes to build and
build . build historical knowledge . In this sense, the considerations made by
Domínguez (1989:41) are clear, who states that: "teaching historical research
methods is equivalent to teaching the management of information , to critically
distinguish between objective data and value judgment , opinion and
prejudice , to extract information by inferences , and to issue weighted
judgments on occult matters ones dis c ut ib les " .

3.2. What content must be developed in the teaching of local

history?
Of all the questions posed here, this is one of the most difficult to answer, due to
the complexity involved in selecting and sequencing historical knowledge in
general and local history in particular. To achieve this, it is necessary to overcome
a series of obstacles linked to the epistemological nature relative to both history
and didactics and to the degree of development of research referring to local
history.

In relation to the epistemological nature, history (like any other discipline of social
sciences ); On the one hand , it has a pluri paradigmatic character, since there
is no single perspective ; On the contrary , it is a discipline that has as its
structural characteristic the coexistence of different paradigms that visualize
reality in a different way (Funes and others, 1995). On the other hand, it is deeply
ideological, since the historian 's worldview directly affects the analysis he
makes of his objects of study .

Given the considerations made, it is logical to assume that the historical paradigm
and ideological position assumed by the historian will directly influence the
selection and sequence of historical knowledge that is to be included in the school
curriculum.

Regarding the problems associated with the field of didactics and the teaching
of history . Domínguez (1998) warns that history , unlike other fields of study
coming from the natural sciences, does not have a conceptual structure that
allows for sequence and hierarchy . of the contents to be taught. This absence
is being addressed by some works , and some curricular designs have already
been developed that can serve as clues for other experiences. As an example, we
can cite the work developed by Professor Rinaldi, at the Juan Pascual Pringles
school, dependent on the National University of San José.

Luis.
To the two previous problems, a third can be added, which is associated with the
degree of development of local history research. In general, small towns do not
have a systematic corpus of knowledge that accounts for their history. This
historical knowledge is different from what the school is used to transmitting in an
intentional and systematic way , because it alludes to multiple realities, it is not
static or uncritically reproduces what has already been established and,
furthermore, it participates with a different scope and depth in the constitutive
processes of identity that emerge autonomously in society. This knowledge, due to
its social relevance , must be included in the school curriculum, but requires
additional effort on the part of teachers and students , who need to recover and
systematize it in order to learn it.

As can be seen, the problems that arise from these three levels are extremely
complex. However, this work is an invitation to historians and educators to define
and specify the problems that arise from them and provide new solutions.

3.3. What teaching strategies should be used to teach local history?

This question leads us to think about the methodological options that teachers
adopt to teach local history. The teaching procedures must be closely linked to the
contents to be worked on.

Valls (1994) distinguishes two groups of procedures for teaching history; On the
one hand, there are those that allow you to learn the key concepts and specific
facts proposed by historians or teachers and; On the other hand , there are those
that allow us to get closer to the research methods that historians use to build a
body of knowledge.

In this distinction it can be seen that the procedures vary depending on the types of
knowledge that are addressed. Thus, the first group focuses efforts on the
reproduction of knowledge constructed by educators or historians; However, in the
second, the concern is centered on the need for students to understand how
research is done and what historical knowledge is produced . Within this second
option is the recovery of local history, which is not only a research strategy but also
a teaching one.

4. The Recovery of local history. A research and teaching methodology

that opens new paths between the school and the local community

Rigoberta Menchú (cited by Rojas Soriano, 1994: 47) in a conference given in

Mexico points out: "There are many questions on the table, but not all of them must
be answered by the teacher. If we know how to read and write we must look for the
answers. "If I were their teacher, I would let them investigate to answer those
questions."

These considerations have a profound didactic implication, because they lead us

to think of research as: a tool that allows the production of knowledge of reality
and; a teaching strategy aimed at promoting the critical appropriation of
knowledge. The recovery of local history through narration is a pedagogical
strategy that attempts to articulate these two aspects. In this sense, this proposal
takes up the challenge made by the new peace prize winner.

Given the great ambiguity that exists around the notion of recovery of local history,
in this work it is defined as the process by which the everyday stories that
residents construct and reconstruct in a place and in a context are rescued and
systematized. determined time and then converted into relevant school knowledge.
This methodology constitutes a valuable tool because it opens new paths that
allow rapprochement between school and community .
 Instances Axles Activities Levels
- Rescue
Conversion of - Systematization First meeting
Predominantly narratives about - D ev olution point of the
I n ve sti g ati v a local history into school and the
historical community .
knowledge . In the community
- C onformation of Second meeting
Conversion of a group . point of the
historical - Integration of school and the
Predominantly narratives into knowledge into - community At the
school knowledge In s t it uc ional Institution
Curriculum recognized by the Curriculum Design
educational .
institution as
relevant .
Conversion of - Development Third meeting
historical - Assessment point of the
Predominantly narratives into school and the
scholastic community In the
D id act ic knowledge that classroom
can be taught and
learned in the
classroom.
Planificatio
n

Figure No. 1: Recovery of local history

This methodology involves at least three clear instances of work (see figure No.
1), which do not occur in a sequential and linear manner (they do not imply a
before-after relationship). Each of them is structured around an axis, from which a
series of particular activities emerge that involves different levels: the local
community, the educational institution and the classroom.

4.1. Predominantly investigative instance

The central axis is the conversion of historical knowledge reconstructed from the
voices and narratives of the different actors of a given community, into relatively
systematic and ordered historical knowledge. In this sense , we seek to re -
contextualize the narratives made by the different actors. Its way of existence
is unsystematic, private and personal. To integrate it into formal education, its
original format must be modified, that is, it must be ordered coherently and given
a public character.

At least three actions are derived from this axis: rescue, systematization and
return. This work entity forms the first point of connection between the school and
the community .

4.1.1. The rescue : In all work it is necessary and essential to "start from
socio-historical practices." The narratives made by key informants from the
community can be taken as the unit of analysis. The rescue of historical narratives
does not simply imply collecting the stories (as it may seem at first glance), but
fundamentally, it is necessary for the research team to be able to critically
understand the context in which it arises . In this sense , the topics , linguistic
nuances, or any aspect that can reveal how the people in general and the
narrators in particular think, feel and act must be recorded .

4.1.2. Systematization : It has meaning and relevance because it transcends

concrete practice , thus allowing it to be understood and explained
comprehensively . To systematize narratives and everyday life , it is necessary
to take into account some specific aspects:

Starting from a totalizing and integrated worldview of reality, where each element is
dialectically articulated with each other. That is why it should not be forgotten that
the historical events narrated by the different protagonists take place at a socio-
historical moment in the country and the world. Obtain a critical vision of
sociohistorical practices, which will favor the identification of the appropriate,
appropriate or imposed cultural elements .

4.1.3. R e v o luci o n: Return is nothing more than the restitution of the

processed information to the subjects who built it. Through this action we return to
practice again, but no longer in its original form, but as the result of the articulation
between practice and theory, by virtue of which a total and comprehensive
vision is obtained. Within the framework of this proposal, different types of returns
can be made to the formal educational system. The two subsequent instances (
predominantly curricular and didactic ) are closely linked to this last level and
are nothing more than a continuity of this task . .

4.2. Predominantly curricular instance

The central axis is the conversion of the narratives of local stories into school
knowledge recognized by the educational institution as relevant. In this sense, we
seek to recontextualize the popular knowledge systematized within the educational
institution. This instance constitutes the second point of connection between the
community and the school .

In this phase of work , the school integrates into its institutional curricular
designs, the local stories narrated by its actors. It involves at least two specific
activities: forming a working group within the framework of the Institutional
Educational Project ( PEI ) and integrating historical knowledge into the
institutional curricular design . ional.

4.2.1. Form a working group within the framework of the P. E.I.

The educational community as a whole must assume this line of work as part of its
Institutional Educational Project (PEI). This requires the conscious commitment
and collective responsibility of the different subjects that the school builds on a
daily basis . In addition , it will be convenient to establish a working group made
up of researchers and teachers. They will have the responsibility of developing and
executing a work program through which this problem is addressed .

4.2.2. Integrate recovered local stories into institutional curricular design

Once the voices of the subjects have been collected and systematized and the
working group has been formed, the task of integrating local stories into the
institutional curricular design begins . In this case, the task will consist of selecting
the narratives based on the themes they propose, and then distributing them
among the various curricular spaces that the school has (Areas, Disciplines,
Workshops, Modules, Classroom Projects, etc.).

During the process of integrating local stories into the school curriculum, it is
necessary to try to:

Avoid rigidly pigeonholing the narratives of everyday life in the curricular

structures proposed by the school. We must not forget that they were created
outside or against the limits established by the curricular spaces. Respect the
richness, strength and originality of the narratives of local history, even if this
implies modifying, on some occasions , the formal aspects of the institutional
curricular design . Build a sequence that allows scientific knowledge to be
logically articulated with popular knowledge.

4.3. Predominantly didactic instance

The central axis of this instance is to convert local stories into school knowledge
that can be taught and learned in the classroom. In this way, the aim is to
recontextualize the narratives inside the classroom. This last instance is almost the
exclusive responsibility of the school and specifically of the teachers and students.
The tasks derived from this axis are :

4.3.1. Plan learning experiences . It will be recommendable to take as a starting

point some recovered local stories and integrate them into some curricular
instance offered by the school.

4.3.2. Develop learning experiences . It is opportune and interesting to create a

group learning space, where dialogue, construction and collective re -
construction are the structuring axes of this ep process. We must remember
that teachers and students are carriers of local history , therefore , the
subjects involved in the classroom have ideas and prior knowledge that can be
capitalized in learning situations .

4.3.3. Evaluate the educational experience . Take a retrospective look at the entire
experience trying to value the achievements, identify the obstacles and re - signify
the work carried out in order to increase your understanding and provide new
lines of action that transform it . r men.

5. Conclusion

In this article it has been stated that the intrinsic relationship between daily life,
narration and history has important consequences in the field of history teaching;
and that it is extremely important to include local history in school, in this sense, a
general framework of reference is created that guides the integration of said
knowledge into the school curriculum and a research and teaching strategy is
developed . nce that allows narratives about local history to be converted into
relevant knowledge that can be taught at school.

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