Historical knowledge, as well as studies in the humanities in general, seem today to be located outside the cone of light cast by the contemporary spotlight. Over the years, the weight of hard sciences and applied sciences, of the fundamental importance of mathematical thinking and information technologies has increasingly grown. Dramatic changes on the global scene have ceased to be echoes of distant events and have begun to make themselves felt in so many aspects of our daily lives. In this volume, we do not focus on the causes of this progressive decline of history understood as ‘magistra vitae’, nor do we deal with the disconnect between academia and civil society that has long preoccupied scholars who are most attentive to the needs of society. For these two essential insights, we will refer to other readings, while here we want to focus instead on what makes historical knowledge strategic as a tool for the educational world, and especially for schools. Our aim is to explore the transformative potential that historical knowledge can offer in the educational context, emphasising the crucial role it plays in creating aware and critical citizens. Through the teaching of history, schools can help develop a critical sense in young people, stimulating reflection on complex issues and promoting the ability to independently analyse past events and their implications for the present. History provides a conceptual connector between different disciplines, enabling students to understand the interconnections between historical developments, the sciences, the arts and society. This integrated perspective can greatly enrich the educational experience, encouraging a view of knowledge that contributes interpretative keys to address contemporary challenges and the ethical choices they require. By analysing historical dynamics, teachers can thus help place contemporary events in a broader context, encouraging a deeper understanding of the roots of current problems and facilitating the development of more informed and sustainable solutions. T herefore, we do not dwell on the defence of history in the face of the onslaught of modernity, because we believe that the best way to enhance the importance of history is to put it to the test and highlight its peculiar characteristics that can be very useful for contemporary man. At the same time, the volume moves away from any opposition between hard sciences and soft sciences because we think that humanistic studies can make a personalised, interesting and original contribution precisely in the connection with the present and the past of hard sciences and technologies. In this sense, through reconnecting with the origins of public history, we want to build bridges between different fields of research, between academia and society, between schools and territories, between the classroom and the local community. It is precisely this bridging activity that history excels at, especially if practised as public history, reconnecting and not dividing, helping to contextualise complex and global phenomena that never have immediate, simple or even intuitive solutions. History, as well as science in general, teaches that human culture has freed itself from the immediate domain of the senses thanks to a multiplicity of cultural artefacts and especially thanks to the potential of measuring instruments, tools of logical and argumentative reasoning, and the constant recourse to procedures of falsification of research hypotheses that are very often counter-intuitive and defy common sense. T he authors of this volume are united in shedding light on and emphasising a particular and very important function of historical knowledge, namely its place within teacher training courses. It is a multi-voice dialogue between academics and non-academics, between professors and school leaders, between students and tutors. All those who, in various capacities and roles, are interested in and committed to enhancing historical knowledge both during training for the teaching profession and, after the recruitment phases, within educational institutions. From this common understanding come the following pages, within which there are many consonances, but also some reasonable and interesting dissonances, which are to be understood as variations of thought on the general theme of the usefulness of historical knowledge in education. We believe we have only begun unearthing the potential of this meeting ground between history, education, schooling, and professionalism. We hope this research, both theoretical and in the field, can be continued – deepened and broadened – in ways that have only been glimpsed here or not yet analysed.