Indonesian’s pre-service history teachers’ perspectives on teaching difficult history in the framework of peace education

Teaching traumatic violent events of the past is part of difficult history for most teachers. These burdens manifested and escalated when pre-service history teachers were asked to conceptualize lesson plans to teach difficult history topics, such as the killings of alleged Dukun Santet (sorcerers) in East Java around 1998. Through a sequential explanatory design, this study aims to explore the perspectives of 49 prospective history teachers in Indonesia. The results of this study indicate that their teaching perspectives are influenced and shaped by their historical perspectives in viewing the events to be taught. Meanwhile, their historical perspectives depend on their critical thinking level in analyzing primary sources. Three levels of critical thinking emerged, each determining the teaching perspective chosen by research participants. These three teaching perspectives can be implemented by history teachers who intend to teach difficult history in the context of peace education. In this framework, students are expected not only to understand what happened in the past but also be able to acquire lesson learned to prevent similar dark events being repeated in the future.