ABSTRACT
Since the 1970s there has been an explosion of scholarship around the world on history education. History was a hotly contested subject in societies around the world long before that period, but what has changed is the development of a global community of history educators who meet, write and otherwise share developments related to the teaching and learning of history. This chapter draws on the work of that community to discuss three themes that show up in deliberations about history education in countries around the world: history education is a contentious and political enterprise; knowledge matters in history education in several ways including the prior knowledge students bring with them to learning situations, and the substance and structure of knowledge to be learned in history class; and history teachers matter. Contemporary approaches to history education require teachers knowledgeable about the discipline and skilled at creating learning experiences to foster student growth in historical knowledge and thinking.
