Introduction - raising standards; standards for historical thinking - history education reform in Oakland, California, Peter Seixas; expecting high standards from inner-city students -challenges and possibilities, Veronica Boix Mansilla; a contemporary past - history textbooks as sites of national memory, Dan Porat; historical and international dimensions of history education - the work of the committee of seven, Chara Haeussler Bohan; children's historical thinking within a museum environment - an overall picture of a longitudinal study, Irene Nakou; children's ideas about historical explanation, Peter Lee et al; significance in history - students' ideas in England and Spain, Lis Cercadillo; development of historical explanation in children, adolescents and adults, Angela Bermudez and Rosario Jaramillo; the development of history teaching curricula in China, Yang Biao; the future of the past - a brief account of the Australian national inquiry into school history, 1999-2000, Tony Taylor; signs of the times - the state of history education in the UK - review of "Issues in History Teaching", Peter Lee et al.