Flemish students’ historical reference knowledge and narratives of the Belgian national past at the end of secondary education

Sincetheearlynineteenthcentury,westerngovernmentshaveexpectedhistoryeducationto playavitalroleintheformationofanationalidentityandthepursuitofnationalcohesion,byfosteringsharedknowledgeandashared(master)narrativeofthenationalpast.Thisarticlereportsonaqualitativestudythatexamineswhichnarrativesyoungadultsconstructabouttheirnationalpast,towhatextentthosenarrativesareunderpinnedbyexistingnarrativetemplates,whethertheyreflectonthefactthatthenationalpastcanbenarratedindifferentways,andtowhatextenttheyshareacommonreferenceknowledge.ThestudyaddressestheFlemishregionofBelgium,acasecharacterizedbyaspecificcontextofanationstateindecline,whereindiverseandoftenconflictinghistoricalnarrativescoexistinpopularhistoricalcultureandwherethenationalpastisalmostabsentfromhistoryeducation.Atotalof107first-yearundergraduatehistorystudentswereaskedtowriteanessayonhowtheysawthenationalpast.Theinfluenceofbothhistoryeducationandpopularhistoricalculturewasreflectedinthereferenceknowledgeaswellasinthe(absenceof)templatesthatstudentsusedtobuildtheiressays.Templateswerenotcriticallydeconstructed,althoughsomestudentsneverthelesswereabletodiscernandcriticizeexisting‘myths’inthenationalpast.

AsyoungpeopleinFlandersclearlyencounternotonesinglenarrativeofthenationalpast, butdiverseandevenconflictingnarratives,thequestionarisesastowhichhistoricalnarratives theyhaveinmind.Thethreefoldaimofthispaperistoexamine(1)whichnarrativesyoung people at the end of secondary school history education build about the national past, (2) whethertheyreflectonthefactthatthenationalpastcanbenarratedindifferentways,and (3) to what extent they share common reference knowledge. In the context of the present study, reference knowledge is understood as factual knowledge of names, dates and places thatspontaneouslycomesintostudents'mindswhenaskedtonarratetheirnation'shistory. Individually,thesesinglepiecesofinformationholdlittlemeaning,buttogethertheyconstitute thebuildingblocksofahistoricalnarrative.
Theparticipantswere107historystudents,between17and19yearsold,whohadjust started their first year of undergraduate study at the time of the study in September 2013. Ofthestudents42werefemaleand65male.Allparticipantshadcompletedtheirsecondary educationinaschoolinFlanders,whichmeansthattheirsecondaryschoolhistoryclasseswere based on a common set of history standards. We are aware that choosing history students meansthattheparticipantswereprobablyparticularlyinterestedinthepastandmighthavea betterthanaverageknowledgeofhistory.
Theparticipantsworkedindividuallyfor45minutesontheiressay,whichtheywroteon a computer in a computing lab without any preparation. During the writing assignment they werenotpermittedtouseanyexternalaids.Thestudentshadtoelaborateanarrativeofthe nationalpastonthespot,whichallowedustogetagraspoftheirreferenceknowledgeandto whatextenttheyspontaneouslyreliedonaspecificnarrativetemplateinbuildingtheirhistorical narrative.
Toanalysestudents'referenceknowledge,wedesignedacodingschemeofcategoriesof referenceknowledge,suchasentities(nations;individuals;collectivessuchasworkers,farmers andsoldiers;andcorporatebodies,suchaspoliticalpartiesortradeunions),datesandplaces (Carretero and Kriger, 2011;Kropman et al., 2015;Peck et al., 2011). These categories and subcategorieswerefurtherrefinedduringthefirstphaseofouranalysis.Wecodedusingthe qualitativeresearchsoftwareQSRNVivo,whichallowedustorecordallreferenceknowledge mentioned in the essays. The choices made while coding were documented in a codebook, which the authors then discussed in order to achieve consensus regarding the exact coding. This guaranteed the consistency of the coding of all data from the first author onward. We chose as units of analysis 'utterances', defining an utterance as 'a phrase or a sentence that includedamentionofahistoricalagent,orapronounreferringtoone' (Pecket al.,2011:262 Todeterminewhetherornotstudentsreflectedontheconstructivenatureofhistorical narratives we conducted a close reading of the essays, searching for relevant passages in whichstudentsshowedanawarenessoftheexistenceoftemplates,forinstance,orcritically deconstructedthem.

The use of schematic narrative templates
As mentioned earlier, the elements of reference knowledge together constitute the building blocks of a historical narrative. The question we raise here is which templates underlie the selectionandarrangementofreferenceknowledge.Ananalysisoftheessaysaccordingtothe criteriasetoutaboveresultedintheoverviewof'traces'oftemplatesseeninTable2onthe followingpage.

Reflection on the existence of templates and the constructed and interpretative nature of history
Researchshowsthattemplatesareoftenusedin'anunwittingandunreflectivemanner' (Lopez et al.,2014:548).Ourstudyconfirmsthesefindingstoalargeextent,aswefoundnoinstances of explicit or critical deconstruction of templates. This is not surprising, as the educational backgrounds of the participants did not encourage epistemological reflection on the ways in which the past is used to construct narratives. The essay assignment did not encourage the participantstomakesuchthinkingexpliciteither.
Four students did reject a certain template though. One student for instance wrote: 'Geezers like England and France claim that Belgium is an artificial country. We only exist becausein1830,somepowerfulpeopledecidedwecouldbecomeanindependentstate.'Here sheclearlyreferredtothe'ArtificialCountry'template.Inthefollowingsentences,sherejected this template on content-related grounds, criticizing the 'pretentious thoughts' of Belgium's neighbouring countries. However, she did not deconstruct it, but simply replaced it with another one, the 'Small but Tough' template. In the essays of two other students, the same mechanismoccurred.Onlyonestudentmentionedthatthenationalpastcouldberepresented indifferentways.'"The"historyofthenationdoesnotexist,becauseitismadebypeople,'he argued,henceshowinganawarenessoftheconstructednatureofhistory.However,hedidnot elaborateontheexistenceofdifferenttemplatesorapproachesinthisrespect.

Conclusion and discussion
This article examined the reference knowledge, the use of templates and the extent of epistemological reflection in written, narrative representations of the national past among 107studentswhohadjuststartedtheirhistorystudiesatuniversity.Thestudents'reference knowledge reflected male, political and military approaches to the national past, and mostly drewfromthepasttwocenturies.Thisisnotsurprising:previousinternationallycomparative research has already shown that wars and recent history play a prominent role in students' representationsofthepast (Liuet al.,2005).Furthermore,anassignmentaboutthenational past mightinfluencestudents'thinkingtowardsapoliticalapproach.
The reference knowledge present in the essays clearly reflected the influence of both the secondary schoolhistorystandardsand popular historical culture. The history standards approachhistorywithinawestern(European)framework.Itishencenotsurprisingthatmany students considered episodes of the Belgian past in a European perspective. Earlier, similar researchcametothesameconclusion (VanNieuwenhuyseandWils,2015).Popularhistorical culture asserted itself in, among other things, the omnipresence of the Belgian kings in the essays.InFlemishsecondaryschoolhistoryeducation,thesekingsarecompletelyabsent(the historystandards)oronlymarginallypresent(thehistorytextbooks).Theextent,however,to whichtheyareactuallymentionedinconcretehistoryclassroompracticeisunknown.Inpopular historicalculture,inanycase,alotofattentionisdevotedtotheBelgiankings,forinstancein television documentaries, historical magazines and historical books meant for a broader 'lay' audience. Furthermore, the influence of primary education could have played an important rolehereaswell.Althoughthestandardsforprimaryeducationalsodonotexplicitlymention anythingabouttheroyalhouse,theprimaryschooltextbooks,andconsequentlyprobablymany teachers as well, pay quite a lot of attention to the royal family; furthermore, they use the reignsoftheBelgiankingstostructuretheBelgianpast.Itisthereforepossiblethatthestudents alsoreliedonthisknowledgestemmingfromchildhoodinwritingtheiressays (Raphael,2004: 269-70).
Fien Depaepe has since 2013 been an assistant professor in educational sciences at the KU LeuvenCentreforInstructionalPsychologyandTechnology.Herresearchdealswithcognitive (e.g. content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge) and affective factors (e.g. beliefs and attitudes) that influence teaching and learning different disciplines.SheisalsomemberoftheInteractiveTechnologyresearchgroupITEC(imec-KU Leuven).