History Edcation and the search for meaning

History is not the mere documentation of the past, but the use of "second-hand" life experiences to meet future challenges. The world around us is far too complex to understand, and so it is the "meaning" to be found in it that guides us through life - but what is this meaning, and how does it enter history? How does it influence the ideas we have about the past? How does it direct our historical interests? How does it provide historical narratives with the beauty and catchiness that makes them successful with audiences? How does it turn past narratives into compelling moral and political lessons for the present? Since history education has moved from being a teaching discipline to becoming a research-based academic discipline, it has sought to answer such questions. An improved understanding of the conditions under which people make sense of history is rewarding in many ways: lessons can be made more entertaining, motivating, and efficient; learners` needs for historical orientation can be better met; puzzling phenomena of historical culture become more understandable; and the mechanisms of historical psychology at work behind our historical ideas become more comprehensible. Up to now, however, history didactics has been mainly concerned with the conscious, rational acts of thinking and judging in the " historical formation of meaning". Emotions, interests, and the pre- and unconscious levels of the psyche, where feelings of meaning primarily arise, have received comparatively little attention; to this day, they occupy a marginal position in models of "historical consciousness." This volume aims to contribute to the professional discussion of meaning in history education by focusing more on the role of the preconscious and unconscious. With reference to various psychological, narratological, and myth-theoretical approaches, it proposes a model of meaning that distinguishes predominantly conscious (for apprehending facts) from predominantly unconscious (for appreciating behaviors) modes of meaning-making. This distinction is applied to the human relationship to history. Central to this is the assumption of a "collective unconscious" which preforms human ideas and narratives and also leads to the fact that our images of history are always shaped by recurring narrative figures and patterns. Jungian archetypes are proposed to explain these. With regard to history teaching (and its disciplinary history), students` interests are understood as needs for meaning, and the question is explored to what extent history teaching sufficiently satisfies these needs. Finally, possibilities for making historical learning more meaningful are explored.