ABSTRACT
Scholars often note that ideas about history are profoundly shaped by the cultural contexts in which they arise. Studying the impact of cultural messages would involve comparing the ideas of children who have learned history in differing contexts. This chapter examines the issues through a study of the historical thinking of children in Northern Ireland and a comparison of the results with previous research among US children. It investigates a number of aspects of historical understanding and the findings that focus on one key dimension of children’s ideas about history—their explanations of how and why life has changed over time. The chapter describes how children in Northern Ireland explain the process, compares their explanations to those of children in the United States, and presents their explanations in terms of the specific kinds of narrative and non-narrative tools to which they have been exposed.
