This article elaborates on findings made in a special issue collection of research in Citizenship, Social and Economics Education, in terms of how History curricula in different countries frame the development of democratic and historical consciousness. Collectively, these contributions provided analyses across nine countries. The function of this present contribution is to weave together several threads introduced in this special issue and to foreshadow a potential trajectory for further research, guided by the inquiry question: What is the role of historical consciousness in facilitating democratic consciousness? First, an overview is provided of how historical consciousness influences the ways democracy is characterised and engaged with across the nine nations examined in the special issue. Second, the workings of a comparative methodology is explored that sketches out how protective, developmental, and disruptive types of democracy occur in various curriculum documents. It is followed by a discussion about the convergences and divergences between the curriculum texts, in terms of how forms of democracy are articulated in the curriculum. These considerations suggest how the History curriculum in each country influences how understandings of democratic consciousness are developed in tandem with moral and historical consciousness. The conclusion makes the case for how each country might cross-pollinate forms of democracy that are aligned with providing educational equity and producing active and informed citizens.

This article explores the development and outcomes of an international history teacher training course initiated by researchers from Germany, The Netherlands, and Sweden. The course, part of the European University consortium EUniWell, aims to enhance teacher students’ international experiences and knowledge by facilitating encounters between students from European coun-tries. The course focuses on heritage as a central theme, theoretically framed by moral aspects, inclusion, and emotion networking in heritage and citizenship education. Through online sem-inars and one on-site week, held in Cologne, students engaged in international groups, visited heritage sites, and developed teaching materials. The course emphasized the importance of multiperspectivity, critical thinking, and cultural reflection in history education. Evaluations re-vealed positive student experiences, highlighting the value of international collaboration and the impact of heritage on learning. The findings suggest that integrating moral perspectives and inclusive practices in history education can foster democratic citizenship and enhance educa-tional outcomes.

An analysis of interactions between history education and democracy education in the writtencurriculum documents including syllabuses in nine selected countries is the focus of this paper.The project is motivated by ongoing global challenges to democracy and how history can beused for anti-pluralistic purposes. The project is motivated by the preliminary observation thatwhile the aims of history education often include support of student democratic skills andadherence to democratic values, the impact of learning history to foster democratic citizens hasnot been a focus of existing research. Published curriculum documents by educationauthorities form the official knowledge (Apple, 2000) and issue authoritative statements onwhat content should be the focus of teaching and learning, hence it is relevant to analyse howdemocracy education and history education are connected.

In this project, curriculum documents from the following countries have been analysed:Australia, Denmark, Finland, Ghana, Israel, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. The ninenation states were selected for their diverse trajectories of democratic developments andpolitical cultures. The analysis addresses the following questions: How are the intersectionsbetween historical and democratic consciousness described in the texts regarding the historysubject?; What are the consequences of the descriptions to history education?; and Whatsimilarities and differences are found between these countries? The analytic frame is based onthe meta-analysis by Sant (2019) and the work on democracy by Held (2006) and Biesta(2010). In the analytic frame three traditions of democracy (protective, developmental, andinterruptive democracy), and the different modes of historical consciousness (Ammert et al.,2022) are the main elements. The curriculum documents are analysed using the close readingtechnique of critical discourse analysis (Wodak, 2004), with focus on the categories anddiscourses distilled through the texts.

The research is a result of the network, Democracy in the past, present, and looking to thefuture: historical, moral, and democratic consciousness in history education, research andpolicy, funded by the Swedish Research Council (2023–2025).

 This article focuses on analysing the relations between expressions of historical consciousness and democracy as featured in the 2020 Norwegian Curriculum for Social Studies. In compulsory school in Norway, History is no longer a subject with a specific syllabus. However, there is a fundamental historical perspective running through the curriculum, intended to support students’ understanding of society in the present and of varying conditions at different times. Historical knowledge and competencies are viewed as tools to understand and to influence society. Students are described as the main agents and the curriculum for Social Studies presents an ideal description of future citizens as participating, engaged and critical members of society. Democracy is expressed as three main themes: a participatory and developing perspective; a perspective expressing knowledge about Democracy; and a perspective stating Democracy as an arena as well as a desired result. Democracy is also underpinned with the citizens’ responsible participation and with societal values such as human rights, equality, and freedom. The analysis problematizes that in the Norwegian curriculum students are presented as a collective, whilst the prescribed and desired perceptions and competencies are mainly individual. This indicates a contradictory and interesting tension between who and what is desired in terms of democracy and citizenship.

The aim of the theme issue is to provide analysis of intersections of historical and democratic consciousness expressed in official curriculum documents such as syllabuses that focus on history in eleven countries. Each of the nation states were selected for their diverse trajectories of democratic developments and political cultures. Drawing on comparative education, policy enactment, and critical discourse analysis the content in the official curriculum documents is approached as texts that are informed by historical ideas of the purposes of education that influence present and future orientations and actions. The articles in this theme issue address the following key questions: 1. How is the intersection between historical consciousness and democratic consciousness described in curriculum and/or syllabus documents regarding the history subject in the selected countries?; 2. What kind of consequences for history education do the descriptions in the curriculum and/or syllabus entail?; and 3. How are the democracy traditions of each selected country reflected in the official knowledge of the various curriculum documents?

 In this session, we will present the results of an international course tailored for history student teachers. This initiative was collaboratively designed, executed, and evaluated by history educators from Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. The primary objectives of the course were to gain insights into each other's history curricula and pedagogical approaches, enhance skills in crafting and assessing lessons that incorporate national and European heritage, and explore avenues for international cooperation in history education while engaging with multiple perspectives.

This Erasmus Plus Blended Intensive Program (BIP) spanned a semester, comprising online sessions and a week-long university and site visits. Students collaborated on lesson planning, visited educational institutions and museums, and put their lessons into practice or collected feedback. The program concluded with a reflective assessment of the outcomes.

Participants were 32 history teacher education students from the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Spain, and Ukraine, showcasing a diverse range of ages and experience levels. Throughout the course, discussions centered around practical, ethical, and inclusive aspects of history education, supplemented by design guidelines for heritage-based teaching (Logtenberg et al. ,2024). We collected students' lesson materials and reflections and employed a questionnaire to assess the learning outcomes of this international collaboration.

In teams, students crafted lessons on topics such as WWI, WWII, the European borders, contested heritage, and Viking culture. In our session, we will share our experiences, analysis of the lessons and the learning outcomes that the student teachers reported. Participants highlighted their enriched understanding gained from exposure to diverse (international) perspectives, insights into student-centered education, and the integration of heritage and ethical and moral perspectives.

Lastly, some of our participating educators will showcase their lesson concepts, demonstrating how they incorporated the outlined design principles and embraced various perspectives—be it moral, inclusive, or heritage-focused—in their history lesson tasks.

 Today history teaching in democratic nations is often expected to develop students’ critical and multilayered thinking and commitment to democratic values and human rights; yet History teaching has also served as an instrument for undemocratic and nationalist ideas (Rüsen, 2004; Karlsson, 2017). While notions of democratic citizenship and associated values can be an aim of history teaching, the subject does not in and of itself guarantee that democracy will be taught—or learnt. There is a need to scientifically explore the interlink between historical consciousness and democratic consciousness from an international perspective in more depth. Democratic consciousness is here understood as ideas about democracy expressed through a complex set of historically loaded values, ideas, and practices expressed through language (Edling et. al. 2022), and analysed through a discourse-historical approach (Wodak, 2015).

The aim of the panel presentation with accompanying discussion is to provide an overview as well as a deeper understanding of intersections of historical and democratic consciousness expressed in school curriculums (especially through official knowledge documents such as syllabuses) focusing on the subject History in a number of countries on four continents—selected for their diverse trajectories of democratic developments and political cultures.

Drawing on comparative education (Kazamias 2009; Kallo 2012; Jokilaetal 2015), curriculum theory (Englund, 1989), and critical discourse analysis (Wodak, 2011) the content in the curriculum documents is approached as texts that are infused with historically tinted ideas that influence present and future orientations and actions. The mode of relating to temporality (that is, historical consciousness), and commitment to democracy as a complex set of historically loaded values, ideas, and practices (democratic consciousness) is explored in-depth, thus providing with a nuanced road-map of democratic ideas in history education as well as their directions for educational practice in a variety of countries.