Indigenous heritage as an educational resource in primary education

ABSTRACT

This paper is the result of an inter-university educational innovation project developed between the University of La Laguna (Spain) and the Autonomous University of Baja California (Mexico). Students from both institutions, studying at the equivalent level to become future primary education teachers, analysed the way in which primary school textbooks approach the topic of heritage in the Canary Islands and in Mexico. Flipped classrooms and project-based learning were the main teaching methodologies, culminating in a final assignment: a written report by students. The results enable us to re-evaluate the knowledge transmitted through textbooks in the light of this history, and their facilitation in teaching and learning processes, with attention to their epistemological biases. Several topics were highlighted as core concerns in the use of textbooks for teaching heritage: the need to question the role of the textbook in the teaching process, and the importance of Indigenous heritage when teaching and holistic concept of heritage. In outlining the inter-university teaching project, the article also shows how the analysis of textbooks in both contexts, and their subsequent comparison, has made possible a reformulation of how students of education in the Canary Islands and Mexico are taught to teach history.

KEYWORDS:

• Active learning
• social sciences
• textbooks
• cultural heritage
• ICT

Acknowledgments

This paper is a direct result of the projects: ‘Trabajo cooperativo, entornos colaborativos y aprendizaje competencial en la Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales’ [Cooperative work, collaborative environments and competency-based learning in the teaching of social sciences], approved and developed within the framework of the Call for Educational Innovation Projects of the University of La Laguna (ULL), academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, from the Teaching of Social Sciences areas of ULL and UABC; and ‘Patrimonio cultural y género. Identidad y contenidos canarios en los manuales de texto de Primaria y ESO, en el marco de la LOMCE’ [Cultural heritage and gender. Identity and Canary Islands content in the textbooks of primary school and compulsory secondary education (ESO) within the framework of the Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality (LOMCE)], from the call ‘Grants for new research projects 2019’ of the University of La Laguna and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, developed at the Teaching of Social Sciences area of ULL.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

A. José Farrujia de la Rosa

A. José Farrujia de la Rosa Lecturer in Didactic of the Social Sciences at the University of La Laguna (Faculty of Education). PhD in Prehistory, PhD Premio Extraordinario (Extraordinary award) in Humanities (2003), both awarded by the University of La Laguna. Winner of the Antonio Rumeu de Armas Historical Research Prize (2009), and of the European Archaeologist Photojournalist of the Year 2023 Prize. Member of the Spanish Society for the History of Archaeology, of the History of Archaeology Research Network, of the European Association of Archaeologists, and of the University Association of Professors of Didactics in the Social Sciences. His lines of research focus on heritage education and the Indigenous world of the Canary Islands. He is the author of 13 books and more than 40 academic papers.

Patricio Sebastián Henríquez Ritchie

Patricio Henríquez Ritchie Professor-Researcher in Education in the Bachelor's Degree in Education Sciences, at the Autonomous University of Baja California (Faculty of Administrative and Social Sciences). Holds a degree in History from the University of Santiago de Chile. He did his postgraduate studies on topics related to the use of ICT in higher education and its relationship with academic variables, and he is the author of multiple papers in scientific journals, research reports and book chapters related to the ICT in higher education.

Tania Elizabet Zavala Martínez

Tania Elisabet Zavala Martínez Assistant Professor in Education at the Autonomous University of Baja California, in the Bachelor's Degree in Educational Sciences (Faculty of Administrative and Social Sciences), mainly in Teaching Methodologies of the Social Sciences. She has worked as a teacher for the last 10 years at different educational levels, teaching basic education subjects in the area of Social Sciences, including Geography of Mexico and the World, and History at the basic level.