Historical Thinking and Teacher Discourse in Secondary Education: An Exploratory Observational Study

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I have to congratulate the authors of this study. It is very well present, explained and developed. The references are recent and very well connected with the study, which help to understand it. The structure is coherent and logical. And finally and most important the results and the discussions bring up new interesting ideas and hypothesis, I particularly found very interesint  the "mutually inhibiting relationship between the exploration of prior knowledge and the development of historicla thinking skills".  Therefore, I have no comments and changes to suggest that will significally improve the manuscript which I think is ready to be published.

Author Response

Thank you very much for the good review.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear colleagues,

I found it extremely interesting to read about your current and necessary research, which emphasizes the importance of approaching the teaching of history from a critical perspective, which connects with Freire's critical pedagogy and with what De Sousa Santos proposes as the Decolonization of Knowledge. Despite being a limited study, it offers results that invite reflection. Some issues seem obvious but are still important, such as the fact that it underlines the need to train teachers in strategic content that enables them to have that suspicious view of sources and what is hidden behind the work of historians. It could be extended beyond the ideologies of the authors of the sources to what is known as the sociology of absences, those historical facts that do not appear, that are erased, silenced or that were not even taken into account, both in relation to sectors of society and to all that periphery that is outside of Westernism and that we know as epistemologies of the South. Returning to Freire, observing the absence of content that does not respond to the techno-scientific pact that Foucault indicates, either due to its origin or its broad form, should increase the possibilities of transferring historical thought to students from that critical perspective. The study, although small, is made up of three relevant and well-linked dimensions that are also clearly and opportunely deconstructed in numerous and interesting items. The methodology is novel and rigorous. It is true that it invites to be complemented with a situated investigation where the narratives of the educational community express what has been observed, how they think, feel, live it, but it is no less true that it opens a dialogical space for numerous investigations in a myriad of senses, which makes it even more valuable. It has made me, personally, as a history teacher, underline a series of elements that I am going to analyse in my own classes, aspects that I take for granted or that I have assumed, despite the fact that I am also a pedagogue and have certain didactic knowledge that conditions me to think about the adjustment of the contents and the tasks to the context, to the students... And it is appreciated a job that puts you in front of the mirror, in these accelerated times in which teachers, between bureaucratic tasks and the little time that the study plans bequeath to the humanities...

Author Response

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and detailed review. I truly appreciate your engagement with the study and your reflections on its implications for history teaching. Your comments on the importance of addressing the "sociology of absences" and expanding the critical perspective resonate deeply with the study’s intentions. I also value your insight into the necessity of complementing the research with situated investigations that incorporate the voices of the educational community. It is particularly meaningful to know that the study has prompted reflections on your own teaching practice. 

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Nicely written and supported research. Organizational elements help the reader to understand the data and analysis. I was happy to see that use of primary resources was frequent and supported.

Author Response

Thank you very much for the good review.