The impact of initial teacher training on the representation and uses of History by future Primary School Teachers: a case study

This article analyzes the representations and uses of history education of future teachers of Primary Education through questionnaires and interviews answered by 150 students of the first and last year of the Degree in Primary School Education at the University of Valencia. Through these instruments we examine their school memories, their conception of History and the influence of the four years of initial training in the way of understanding and representing school History, paying special attention to the relevance of a greater or lesser didactic-disciplinary training in this specific subject. The results point to the influence of memories and previous experiences in the way of conceiving and thinking about history education and to a greater lack of coherence between discourse and praxis among those students with less training in History and its didactics.