By teaching the local history, new information is
brought, being important the transmission of the history of the ancestors, of the
tradition. Researching local communities can be a motivating and stimulating
activity for students.
Knowing local history makes it easier for us to make connections with events in
national and universal history.
The use of local history elements in history lessons, but also the use of
extracurricular activities, lead to the formation of patriotic feelings in students.
The role of local history is to raise awareness, to understand historical
phenomena, to form civic attitudes, to respect inherited material values and
spirituality, to scientifically substantiate history lessons.
By integrating local history materials into history classes, new information is
brought in, and it is important to pass on the history of our ancestors and
tradition. Researching local communities can be a motivating and stimulating
activity for students. The integration of the elements of local history in the
instructive-educational process also involves the use of teaching aids such as:
historical objects, ethnographic objects, photographs, audio-visual technical
means as well as teaching methods such as: narrative exposition, demonstration,
investigation, conversation, learning by discovery, comparison, problematization.
The elements of local history, skillfully integrated in the teaching of history, have
a special educational value. They provide evidence of the past, bear witness,
suggest, help students understand, come into contact with the past, without
which it would remain abstract and verbal. Curiosity, the interest aroused by the
traces of local history, the emotion it provokes, the imagination it stimulates, are
a favorable condition for the successful study of this discipline. They give the past
a new life, it helps the students to reconstruct the evolution of history, to relive
the past with intensity. Through vivid and real examples, history, and especially
local history, plays an important role in educating students in the spirit of
patriotism.
There are a wide variety of materials that can be used in the educational process,
namely:
- narrative material (stories about concrete historical events);
- folkloric material (depicts in artistic images: poems, songs, proverbs, sayings, not
only customs and traditions, but also the way of life of the people, heroic deeds,
the fight for justice and freedom, joys and sorrows);
- fiction material (historical literature);
- documentary material (documents of public or private origin that include
historical data);
- archeological material (work tools, weapons, ornaments, coins and medals
discovered through excavations);
- historical monuments (constructions with a special historical value, buildings
that represent the tradition of important facts or evoke great cultural
personalities);
- graphic representations (historical paintings, photographs, drawings, local
historical map).
The use of local history knowledge in the history lesson is a difficult issue that
employs the pedagogical mastery of the teacher who must have a lot of
information about local history and the mastery of integrating history lessons.
The elements of local history have an important role in the knowledge and
understanding of historical events, processes and phenomena, contributing
directly to the formation of beliefs that materialize in attitudes and behaviors.
Elements of local history can be used successfully in teaching contemporary
history.
The local history material supports the student in the right understanding of the
historical process carried out in the native places and, from this, starting further
to the widening of the student's visual horizon on the history of the country.
