Historical significance

Historical significance is a historiographical key concept that explores and seeks to explain the selection of particular social and cultural past events for remembrance by human societies.

This element of selection involved in both ascribing and analyzing historical significance is one factor in making the discipline of history distinct from the past.

In contrast, historical significance is an example of a subject specific secondary key concept or "second-order knowledge" also known as a meta-concept,[2] or disciplinary concept,[3] which is typically used to help organize knowledge within a subject area, frame suitable areas of inquiry, provide the framework upon which substantive knowledge can be built, and map learner progression within a subject discipline.

[5] Historical significance is often regarded as involving judging why a particular person or event is remembered and why another is not, it is this aspect of reasoned and evaluative judgement about historical significance that makes history writing differ from being simply a record of past events.

[9] Examining what has been included and what has been left out of the historical record can be an effective tool for guiding students to understand how cultural background affects their perception of history.

[17] The teaching of how to assess what has been considered significant and what has been left out has been described as:"surely a fundamental corner-stone of a liberal and democratic education and a pre-requisite for effective citizenship.