Democracy in Play: An Experience with DICTs in the Teaching of Ancient History
Education in History; Ancient History; Athenian democracy; digital technologies; historical-digital
literacy; digital narrative game.
This dissertation investigates the possibilities of pedagogically integrating Digital Information and
Communication Technologies (DICTs) into the teaching of Ancient History in the 6th grade of
elementary education, using Athenian democracy as thematic focus. We begin by observing that
content regarding the ancient world tends to be perceived by students as temporally and culturally
distant, which can hinder the construction of meaning in historical learning. Faced with this issue,
we examine the extent to which the pedagogically guided use of digital resources can foster
student engagement, stimulate historical inquiry, and contribute to the development of
historical-digital literacy. To this end, the research connects discussions on digital culture and the
integration of DICTs into education (Lévy, 2010; Braga, 2013), History teaching and the
development of historical thinking (Cerri, 2011; Bittencourt, 2018), and curriculum and textbooks
(Freitas, 2014; Silva, 2015). As a theoretical-methodological outcome, a didactic sequence titled
Democracy at Stake: The Citizen Assembly was developed and implemented; it was organized into
stages involving historical contextualization, a digital narrative game, a collective simulation, and a
debate. The game, developed using Google Forms and mediated by historical sources, places
students in different roles within Athenian society, engaging them in argumentation, negotiation,
decision-making, and the analysis of consequences. Drawing on historiography that views Athenian
democracy as a specific, contradictory historical experience marked by limits on political
participation (Ferreira, 2004; Starr, 2005; Mossé, 2008; Funari, 2011; Reis, 2018), the purpose is to
examine the tensions between citizenship and exclusion that structured the polis and challenges
interpretations that present it as the linear, idealized origin of contemporary democracy. The
results indicate that the intentional use of digital resources can enhance the dialogue between
past and present, foster student agency, and contribute to an education in History that is more
critical, participatory, and aligned with contemporary forms of communication.