High Expectations Unfulfilled: Constructing A Symbolic Divide Between History Teachers and Academic Historians in Lithuania

Abstract

The article discusses the creation of a symbolic divide between two communities of historians, history teachers and academic historians, its maintenance, perception, and the mutual interaction dictated by this divide in the context of the 2022 updated general education Lithuanian history curriculum and its development. The study is based on nineteen semi-structured interviews with history teachers and academic historians who worked on the new version of the history curriculum. The article analyzes: 1) the assumptions behind the divide between school history and academic history and ways to overcome it; 2) history teachers’ cognitive strategies about the interaction between the two communities; and 3) narrative interpretations of the updated history curriculum, its development and organization. The divide in the reconstruction of cognitive categories and narrative strategies of history teachers and academic historians is revealed primarily in their attitudes toward the scope of the curriculum, didactic decisions, and practical implementation. The gap between the communities of historians under consideration is further reinforced by the use of the terms “we” and “they,” with the opposing group being described as lacking the necessary competencies and knowledge and seeking to impose its social practice. In situations requiring consensus, tensions were created by rejecting the cognitive models that other community of historians follows in its practice.