The strength of historical culture: brazilian students’ representations on national heroes

Abstract

The history taught in the schools, over the past two decades, has been the stage of profound controversy over its place in education systems and its role in molding the historical consciousness of young people. Within the mark of globalized cultures, it is possible to visualize a rising fascination for the past, and paradoxically becomes questionable whether and what can be actually learnt from History. The present article is a result of an international and interinstitutional project entitled Youth and History in Mercosur (Jovens e a História no Mercosul), whence the data about the historical culture of Brazilian sophomore students was colected, when analyzing the characters of the history that inhabit their social representations. It is a matter of seeking to understand the individuals’ interpretations of the past, considering social representations as a place of confluence between culture, social practices, collective memory and their social identities. The students pointed out three major national heroes in their opinion and in order of importance, and the data was treated by the Evoc 2000 software, based on Abric’s central core concept from the Theory of Social Representations.