The International Society for History Didactics strives to build bridges – bridges between disciplines, bridges between countries and continents, bridges between academia and schools. A non-profit organization, the ISHD promotes research and teaching of history didactics, focusing on issues related to historical thinking and consciousness, learning and teaching history, historical culture, and the education of history teachers. The ISHD invites all researchers in the field of history didactics or closely related fields to join as members.
The history of the society goes back to 1980: On March 4, the organizational meeting of the International Society for History Didactics took place. Piet Fontaine from the Netherlands, Walter Fuernrohr from Germany, and Adriano Gallia from Italy took the initiative and invited colleagues to Tutzing near Munich in Germany. Representatives came from Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Statutes were discussed and adopted, and can be found here.
Today, the ISHD has around 180 members, coming from countries such as Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greek, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Turkey, and the United States of America.
In order to achieve its aims, the ISHD organizes annual conferences on changing locations. Besides, it publishes the peer-reviewed journal JHEC (International Journal of Research on History Didactics, History Education, and History Culture. Yearbook of the International Society for History Didactics).The JHEC is issued once a year and is included in ERIH PLUS and SCOPUS.