Abstract

Initial results of a research focused on understanding the tensions in the development of historical thinking among high school students are presented, specifically in relation to the conflict between the Spanish and the Mapuche in Colonial Chile. The sample included 231 students from educational institutions with various administrative dependencies, and the methodology used encompassed the application of an ad hoc questionnaire and content analysis to examine the collected information. Among the identified tensions, macro curricular aspects are highlighted, such as the fragmentation of the educational system into various administrative dependencies and its effects on the handling of first and second order concepts, or the consequences of the linear organization of the History curriculum on the deep understanding of historical processes. In the micro curricular aspect, there is a lack of familiarity of students with the work of historians, absence of strategies for working with historical sources, deficiencies in the appropriation of key concepts, and the persistence of a history centered on specific events. Furthermore, difficulties in the students' ability to temporally locate facts, concepts, and historical processes studied are evident. © 2025, Universidad de Concepcion. All rights reserved.