Geschiedenis in beeld: Over het gebruik van afbeeldingen in het geschiedenisonderwijs vanaf de jaren vijftig

Abstract

This thesis is about the use of images in history schoolbooks used in Dutch secondary education during the 1950s, 1970s, 1990s and period 2015-2020. In the past 75 years, the focus on knowledge and skills in Dutch history education has shifted back and forth. In addition, the ‘pictorial turn’ affected the way historians used pictures in historical research. This study used several historical textbooks that have been used in Dutch history education in secondary school. These textbooks from the 1950s, 1970s, 1990s and the past 5 years have been analysed to see whether these changes in different curricula and the ‘pictorial turn’ have had an influence on the use of images in textbooks. This study found a small difference in the use of images since the 1990s. Textbooks have been using more images and used more colour in these images since the 1990s. Since these books used more images, it has been possible to use these images more diversly, for example as historical sources that can be used in research. In addition to the textbook analysis, 8 history teachers in Dutch history education have been interviewed to get a clearer picture of the use of images in classrooms. These teachers use images in different ways than the textbooks used in their classrooms. Therefore, the use of images might be heavily influenced by teachers instead of the textbooks.