General Information
Contact
Historian ja yhteiskuntaopin opettajien liitto HYOL ry
Förbundet för lärarna i historia och samhällslära FLHS r.f.
The Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland
Kirsi Ruhanen
The Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland
Mechelininkatu 15 B 36
00100 Helsinki
Phone: +358 44 3031 789
E-Mail: toimisto@hyol.inet.fi
Homepage: http://www.hyol.fi/
About the organisation
The Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland was founded in 1948 to promote the interest of history teachers as well as to support them in their work. The association produces material for history teachers and organises training courses for its members. In addition, the association aims to didactically and pedagogically develop history and social studies, takes part actively in the development of the national curriculum and supports research on history teaching. The Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies has 27 regional suborganisations across the country and approximately 1,500 members.
The history competition (currently inactive)
The first EUSTORY history competition was organised in Finland during academic year 2008-2009 with the financial help of The Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Swedish Cultural Foundation. The competition supports the aims set for history teaching in the national curriculum: students learn to acquire and use historical information critically and they understand that history and the present can be interpreted in different ways depending on one’s own experiences. In addition, participating in the competition helps students to construct their historical consciousness and adds to their understanding and acceptance of differences among people. The history competition offers history teachers a wonderful method to teach skills along with historical knowledge.
Requirements
The competition has two series: one for upper secondary school students and another for pupils in the upper level of comprehensive school. It’s possible to participate in the competition either in Finnish, Swedish or English. Students may participate alone, in pairs or in small gropus. Participants are required to approach the chosen topic locally, reagionally of biographically. The contributions should be presented in writing but they may be accompanied with audio/visual illustrations.
Jury
The preliminay jury is composed of history teachers who work either in upper level of comprehensive school or in secondary school. The final jury has 4 to 5 members and includes professional historians along with the chairman of the board of The Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies.
Awards
The first three awards in both competition series are cash prizes. In the series for secondary school students the first prize is 1,000 €, the second 750 € and the third prize 500 €. In the series for pupils in the upper level of comprehensive school the corresponding prizes are 750 €, 400 € and 200 €. In addition the authors of the best five contributions in both series are awarded with other prizes.