How Dutch Students Make Meaning with the Past: Narrative Meaning-Making and Ultimate Concerns in History Education

Gijs Van Gaans; Geerte Savenije; Carla  van Boxtel; Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld

doi:10.51769/bmgn-lchr.19535

Author(s)

Gijs Van Gaans University of Amsterdam
Geerte Savenije University of Amsterdam
Carla van Boxtel University of Amsterdam
Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld Tilburg University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51769/bmgn-lchr.19535

Abstract

This interview study investigates how present-day Dutch upper secondary students construct meaningful understandings of the past by connecting historical examples to their ultimate concerns – core values and fundamental worldviews. Building on research on sensitive history, historical narrativity, and historical consciousness, the study shifts attention from teachers’ perspectives to students’ own meaning-making. Using a qualitative research design inspired by narrative methods in spiritual care, this article analyses semi structured interviews of fourteen students and their museum-style ‘living timelines’. The findings show that these Dutch students predominantly mobilise values such as equality and freedom to attribute significance to historical events and actors. Personal experiences and social identities strongly shape narrative meaning. Most students employ intentional and existential explanations and view history largely as a story of progress, while a few construct more tragic plots. The study provides a deeper understanding of why certain historical topics are experienced as sensitive and how personal meaning-making informs students’ engagement with the past.

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Author Biographies

Gijs Van Gaans, University of Amsterdam

Gijs van Gaans is a PhD student at Research Institute of Child Development and Education of the University of Amsterdam. His research interests are historical consciousness and religious literacy. He works as a teacher trainer in the school subjects of religious education and history at both ILO (University of Amsterdam) and ICLON (Leiden University). Recent publications: Gijs Mushin van Gaans, ‘Religieuze geletterdheid als krachtige kennis. Een religiewetenschappelijke kenniskader voor het leergebied Levensbeschouwing & Religie als basis voor modern burgerschapsonderwijs’, Dimensies. Tijdschrift voor didactiek van de mens- en maatschappijvakken 11 (2025) 59-91. https://dimensies.nu/religieuze-geletterdheid-als-krachtige-kennis-nr-11-dec-2025/. E-mail: g.vangaans@uva.nl.
Geerte Savenije, University of Amsterdam

Geerte Savenije is an assistant professor at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education of the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests are controversy and sensitive historical topics, historical empathy and learning history in museums and heritage institutions. She works as a teacher trainer at the Graduate School of Child Development and Education (ILO) at the University of Amsterdam. Recent publication: Hanneke Bartelds, Geerte M. Savenije, Jannet van Drie, and Carla van Boxtel, ‘Teaching Empathy with the Help of Israel-Palestine Eyewitnesses in History Class’, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (2026). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000839. E-mail: g.m.savenije@uva.nl.
Carla van Boxtel, University of Amsterdam

Carla van Boxtel is educated as historian and educational scientist and she is professor of history education at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education of the University of Amsterdam. She teaches in the teacher education program. Her main research topics are the learning and teaching of history in and outside schools, particularly historical thinking and reasoning, epistemic beliefs, critical thinking, understanding of controversies and the promotion of dialogic and inquiry-based teaching approaches. Recent publications are Carla van Boxtel and Jeannet van Drie, ‘Dialogue as Shared Historical Inquiry: Reflections on Research into Educational Dialogue in History Education’, in: Mario Carretero and Everardo Perez-Manjarrez (eds.), Global Perspectives on the Role of Dialogue in History Education: Socio-Cultural, Psychological, and Digital Dimensions (Routledge 2024) 101-116; and idem, ‘Historical Reasoning: Conceptualizations and Educational Applications’, in: Scott Alan Metzger and Lauren McArthur Harris (eds.), The Wiley International Handbook of History Teaching and Learning (John Wiley & Sons 2018) 149-176. E-mail: c.a.m.vanboxtel@uva.nl.
Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, Tilburg University

Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld is historian and professor emeritus. From 1999 to 2025, he was endowed and associate professor at Tilburg University. He supervised 27 dissertations to date. He is active in the field of Public History, the domain in which professional historians, together with their audience, give form, content, and meaning to knowledge of the past. His main areas of interest are the formation of power in the High Middle Ages and the history and remembrance culture of the Holocaust. Recent publication: ‘Radicaal voor het levensverhaal. Geschiedenis als narratieve verwerking’, Noordbrabants Historisch Jaarboek 42 (2025) 98-123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.71265/kacnw216. E-mail:
a.j.a.bijsterveld@tilburguniversity.edu.