Historical memory and apps to develop social and civic competence: effects of the 1936 Project on teachers in initial training

Abstract

One of the aims of history teaching is to train citizens capable of interpreting social facts from a critical perspective. To this end, Social Sciences Teaching professors suggest that it is necessary to make changes in teaching methods, such as the introduction of socially controversial issues in the classroom, like historical memory, and the use of technological resources, like apps. Within that framework, the objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching project 1936 Project with the app Eibar 1936-1937 Guide in the initial training of Primary Education teachers. The aim was to verify if its implementation contributes to increasing the interest in learning history and if this improves the development of social and civic competence; taking into account possible differences based on sex. A total of 147 students (68.7% women) from the Degree in Primary Education at the University of the Basque Country participated. A questionnaire was used with variables designed to assess teaching methodologies, interest in studying history, and social and civic competence with regard to the civil war and historical memory. Descriptive analyses, average differences and structural equation modeling (SEM) were carried out to test the hypothesised explanatory model. The results suggest its validity, since the introduction of socially controversial issues and technological teaching resources is linked to an increase in the interest in studying history, and impacts on the development of social and civic competence. On the other hand, results show gender differences in all the variables, with better results for the group of women before and after the intervention, especially in social and civic competence, and within it, in the dimension knowledge of the past: Spanish civil war.