The Tenses of Historical Consciousness: The Impact of Memory Work Within the Colombian Education Community

Abstract The confrontation with the recent past has been a central component of the Colombian transitional panorama for almost 20 years. Since the Colombian state recognized its duty of remembrance, the National Center for Historical Memory has published more than 100 reports that contribute to an understanding of the causes of the Colombian armed conflict and a recognition of the crimes against humanity that occurred in this context. These reports, however, are known only to a small group of experts. At the same time, the Colombian armed conflict is an experience shared by many and producing a multiplicity of different narratives, so it is unlikely that people lack knowledge about their past or have a stance towards it. In fact, the confrontation with the recent past is a topic that gives rise to bitter disputes. This study addresses the gap that exists between institutional and academic efforts, on the one hand, and collective and individual memories on the other. To gather information on the channels and methods of learning as well as the interpretations given to historical events, we carried out an exploration of historical consciousness of secondary students, understanding school as the place where formal and non-formal channels of knowledge transmission meet. To do this, we applied a digital questionnaire and conducted interviews with students and teachers from different regions of Colombia in order to answer the questions where the knowledge about the past comes from, what are the channels through which people learn about their past and turn it to a meaningful story and what is the overall meaning of the past and, specifically, the meaning of the armed conflict for people. Drawing inspiration from works that blend academic research with graphic storytelling, and driven by the belief that university-generated knowledge should reach broader audiences through engaging formats, we created the comic The Tenses of Historical Consciousness, which accompanies this article. This comic fictionalizes real situations, characters, and spaces to depict aspects of the research process and its findings.