The aim of the theme issue is to provide analysis of intersections of historical and democratic consciousness expressed in official curriculum documents such as syllabuses that focus on history in eleven countries. Each of the nation states were selected for their diverse trajectories of democratic developments and political cultures. Drawing on comparative education, policy enactment, and critical discourse analysis the content in the official curriculum documents is approached as texts that are informed by historical ideas of the purposes of education that influence present and future orientations and actions. The articles in this theme issue address the following key questions: 1. How is the intersection between historical consciousness and democratic consciousness described in curriculum and/or syllabus documents regarding the history subject in the selected countries?; 2. What kind of consequences for history education do the descriptions in the curriculum and/or syllabus entail?; and 3. How are the democracy traditions of each selected country reflected in the official knowledge of the various curriculum documents?

This article examines how the Danish history curriculum encourages students to understand history and develop a sense of temporal orientation, and how this orientation can be linked to the fostering of democratic consciousness. This syllabus is analysed through critical discourse analysis (CDA). Historical consciousness is described as rooted in history, while also empowering individuals to act. The primary finding regarding democracy suggests a vision where both individuals and smaller communities are not only granted but also expected to exercise their rights to participate in an ever-evolving society. Democracy is portrayed as a daily practice aimed at enhancing one's own life or the community. However, interconnecting historical and democratic consciousness to understand the purpose of history education raises questions about the interpretation of historical guidance. Should it be viewed as a framework that restricts citizens’ ability to act independently or as a tool that offers opportunities for change?

Most of the history education research that addresses controversial issues suggests that disputes arising in the history classroom are rooted in students’ diverse identities that relate differently to history. Therefore, a history education that wants to ease tensions must try both to make these different identities and their relations to history visible and to enable an understanding of different relations to history based on identity. Starting with Gadamer’s concept of historically effected consciousness, this article outlines a model consisting of ontological third-order concepts and historical empathy in the history education as a suggestion to enable and corroborate constructive deliberative discussions in the history classroom. 

De epokala tendenserna i dansk historieundervisning – deocentrism, antropocentrism och polycentrism – kan i viss mån sägas känneteckna också svensk historieunder-visning. En än mer träffande beskrivning av svensk historieundervisning skulle dock vara Gud och nytta, nationen samt demokrati och medborgarfostran. Svenska historie-läroböcker tycks mer kännetecknas av kontinuitet än av förändring (Gustafsson, 2017).

Over the past three years, the Western world has seen many conflicts aroundhistory. Statues have been torn down, anniversaries have been debated, historical figureshave been re-evaluated, and many have begun to question or defend their own nationalhistorical narrative. Social media has heightened the debate, with antagonists engaging infierce and usually not very nuanced debates on Twitter and Facebook. In this text, we try tobuild a digital historical didactic framework for how teachers can work with controversialhistory in the multi-cultural classroom by using social media as a resource. Through ananalysis of second order concepts such as significance, historical perspective, and historicalempathy based on a historical cultural perspective and with the use of history in focus, wehope that teachers in the classroom will be able to contribute to increased interculturalcompetence. In a final example, we analyze how people with different backgrounds anddifferent purposes in a thread on Twitter debate the history behind the celebration ofColumbus Day in a city in the USA.

The main target of this study is to make a comparative analysis between the presence or absence of historical thinking competencies in the official curricula of Gymnasieskola (Sweden) and Bachillerato (Spain). To reach this goal, a mixed instrument was designed, both qualitative and quantitative, to analyze the offical documents. The results show a great presence of “historical consciousness” in the case of Sweden and the use of historical sources and evidences in the case of Spain.

El objetivo principal de este estudio es el de analizar de forma comparativa la presencia o ausencia de las competencias de pensamiento histórico en el currículo educativo de Historia en los niveles de Gymnasieskolan (Suecia) y Bachillerato (España). Para ello, se diseñó y validó un instrumento mixto, cualitativo y cuantitativo, para analizar los documentos oficiales. Los resultados expresan la gran presencia de variables como “conciencia histórica” en el caso sueco y el mayor peso que tiene el trabajo con fuentes históricas y evidencias en el caso español.