Imagine the past. The teaching of history through iconographic sources

Abstract

Introduction: Recent studies show that, despite being absorbed in a hypervisual culture, students are not capable of deciphering, understanding and interpret the content and message of the images they observe. Conscious of the need for a visual literacy and convinced of the educational value of iconographic sources in the teaching of history; we present a didactic experience developed in the 4th year of ESO in the contemporary history subject that claims the use of the images.

Description of the project: Using cooperative learning and under the supervision of the teacher, the students divided into five groups, carry out an investigation that links the topics studied theoretically in class with a work of art. Under the leadership of a group, another four work on aspects that concern the artist, the aesthetic-artistic characteristics of the chosen work, identify the main theme combining the historical fact that represents it, and, finally, locate the work and the place or entity that guards it today. The leadership changes with each work along with the work carried out by each group.

Results: A panel with 29 works of art of that summarizes contemporary history in his view, as well as a detailed study of each work in table format that is disclosed to the educational community with small texts on the school’s Facebook page.

Conclusions:The project favors a significant learning of history and starts students in the interpretation and analysis of iconographic sources, thus contributing to their visual literacy and their education in free, critical and democratic citizen by analyzing different works of art.