No. 43 - Times, Events, Memories. Pedagogical and Historical Trails

From the second half of the twentieth century, historical and pedagogical research, much like other fields within the humanities, has adopted a more diverse and differentiated perspective in analyzing its objects of study. It has embraced the lessons, innovations, and stimuli that have emerged from the new historiographical, social, and cultural approaches, which, in turn, have profoundly transformed the epistemological foundations of research.

The comparative perspective of the school of the Annales (Marc Bloch, Lucien Febvre, and Fernand Braudel), as well as the Kulturgeschichte tradition of German historiography (which goes from Bernard Groethuysen to the socio-historical approaches of Norbert Elias and to the method of "historical semantics" of Reinhart Koselleck and François Hartog), have provided enduring reasons for overcoming the universalistic vision. Such vision, from Hegel to Dilthey, Troeltsch, and Croce, had shaped the narration of history — including educational history — through phases, events, and protagonists.

New directions in historical and historical-pedagogical research have also gained traction in Italy, by incorporating the innovations brought about by the interpretive-narrative paradigm proposed by Hayden White in the 1970s and the investigations on the relationship between microhistory and Weltgeschichte proposed by Carlo Ginzburg and Giovanni Levi. These approaches, which emphasize the need to give voice to so-called "marginal" events, have consistently been underpinned by strong methodological rigor and they have been rooted in documentary and archival research and in the testing of hypotheses for internal consistency.

While reaffirming the necessity and importance of historical-pedagogical handbooks — which, when properly structured, have always offered an overarching framework of influences, protagonists, and differing traditions — research has increasingly delved into the analysis of the many and varied interconnections between specific social and cultural events, working itself against the complex backdrop of geopolitical and institutional changes that, over the last seventy years, have not involved Western societies only. The increasing focus of a significant part of historical and pedagogical studies on certain aspects of educational history — from classical Greece to the "collective shipwreck" of modernity, which represent themes that have been thoroughly explored from different perspectives by scholars such as Mario Alighiero Manacorda, Antonio Santoni Rugiu, and Egle Becchi — has enabled the recovery of the features of often-overlooked events, broadening them through a greater sensitivity towards the history of ideas and culture.

In this sense, as Jacques Le Goff rightly pointed out, the relationship between past and present plays a decisive role in the positioning of the historian. On the one hand, he acts as a privileged reader of archival documents. On the other hand, he works as a weaver of a narrative fabric that, while distanced from mere (though important) chronology, aims to shed light on the complex and problematic relationship between time, events, and society. This relationship does not only concern the past; it challenges the historian directly: their research and verification tools, methodological anchors, and epistemological references.

As Le Goff wrote: “The historian will make further progress in the understanding of history by striving to challenge himself, just as a scientific observer takes into account the changes he may bring to the object he is observing” (J. Le Goff, History and Memory, Turin, Einaudi, 1977, p. 37). This highlights the continuous activity of clivage (de Certeau), – namely, the distancing and separation — the historian must maintain with regard to the object of their study.

Following this path, the historical-pedagogical perspective also unfolds along three fundamental axes: time, events, and memory. For each of these closely interwoven dimensions of historical work, we propose three different reflections by historians, which can significantly expand or delimit the field of inquiry:

Time:
"History is the science of time. It is closely bound to the different conceptions of time that exist within a society and form an essential element of the mental framework of its historians. One must return to the notion of an ancient contrast — existing even within the thought of historians themselves — between a circular and a linear conception of time. Historians have rightly been reminded that their tendency to consider only 'chronological' time should give way to greater concern with the philosophical questions surrounding time." (ibid., p. 38)

Events:
"Not given, but created by the historian — and how many times? Invented and crafted through hypotheses and conjectures, through delicate and passionate work... To elaborate a fact is to construct it. In other words, to provide the answer to a problem. And if there is no problem, it means there is nothing at all." (L. Febvre, Problems of Historical Method, Turin, Einaudi, 1976, pp. 73–74)

Memory:
"The search for lost time is a chronicle derived from memory: in which the empirical succession of time is replaced by the mysterious and often neglected linking of events, as perceived by the biographer of the soul, looking backward and inward, as the only true thing. Past events no longer hold power over him, and he never pretends that what has long since happened has yet to happen, or that what was long ago decided is still undecided. Therefore, there is no tension, no dramatic climax, no assault and clash, nor subsequent resolution and peace." (E. Auerbach, From Montaigne to Proust, Bari, De Donato, 1970, p. 179)

Thus structured, this Call wants to draw the attention of scholars in the field of historical-pedagogical studies to key themes and issues.
Many researchers, through long-term investigations that have often been accompanied by methodological reflections, have contributed with their original insights to a renewed construction of sense within the historical-pedagogical discourse.

Suggested topics for contributions may include (but are not limited to):

• Collective memories and cultural legacies in the history of educational ideas;
• The impact of Public History on the history of pedagogy;
• The meanings and exemplary value of the comparativist perspective in the history of education;
• Archives and new technologies in historical-pedagogical research;
• Case studies and exemplary instances in historical-pedagogical scholarship.

 

Keywords: collective memories; Public History; comparative historical-pedagogical research; case studies.

Publication: beginning of May, 2026

Submissions deadline: December 10, 2025

Journal approval: by January 10, 2026

First peer-review’s outcome: by February 20, 2026