Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : The text proposes a cross-analysis of the pedagogical principles of Ovide Decroly – a Belgian doctor and pedagogue who is part of the New Education movement –, the legal requirements for teaching history in primary schools in the Frenchspeaking part of the country, and the elements collected during interviews and observations of teachers working in schools with so-called ‘active’ pedagogies. Through these elements, the aim is to question the knowledge under construction and to characterize it with regard to the knowledge derived from the discipline of history.