Abstract

The research findings discussed in this article concern the ways in which ideas of change/continuity and historical development are represented by secondary education students. Drawing on historical consciousness and historical education as theoretical frameworks, the study addresses students' perspectives and perceptions using categories such as historical meaning, temporal change, and factors of change. The approach is hermeneutic and oriented towards the interpretation of narratives. The study employed an exploratory mixed-method design and used a Likert-scale questionnaire; analyses combine statistical measures of key trends with qualitative analysis in order to explore patterns and broaden the discussion. Quantitative data were collected in three urban centres in the south-central region of the country. Students' perceptions intertwine with repetitive, zigzagging, optimistic, and unchanged representations of historical development. The factors perceived as having the greatest persistence in influencing temporal change tend to be associated with technical and scientific dimensions and the economic matrix, characteristic of the modern development model.