The Construction of Historical Literacy Studies in Global and National Contexts for The Younger Generation

Historical literacy constitutes an essential competency in 21st-century education that emphasizes not only mastery of historical facts but also the ability to think historically, evaluate sources, construct arguments based on evidence, and critically utilize digital technology. Advances in information technology and artificial intelligence (AI) have driven a paradigm shift in historical research and learning. Consequently, a comprehensive review of trends in the development of historical literacy is necessary. This study aims to identify, analyze, and map trends in historical literacy research within the global and national contexts of Indonesia during the 2016–2026 period, covering research themes, theories employed, research methods, key findings, and future directions for research. The study used the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method with a descriptive qualitative approach. The review process involved identifying, selecting, evaluating, and synthesizing relevant scholarly articles from various indexed national and international journals, which were then analyzed thematically to identify developments in concepts, theoretical approaches, research methods, and research findings for each period. The results of the study indicate a significant paradigm shift. In the 2016–2018 period, research focused primarily on the development of historical thinking, historical consciousness, and the evaluation of historical sources. The 2019–2022 period saw an expansion into the application of historical inquiry and historical reasoning, as well as the use of digital historical sources, virtual museums, and digital archives to enhance students’ critical thinking skills. Furthermore, the 2023–2026 period was marked by the integration of multicultural historical literacy, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, AI literacy, and digital historical literacy in response to the challenges of Society 5.0. This study concludes that the direction of historical literacy development is no longer oriented solely toward the mastery of historical knowledge but also toward strengthening historical thinking skills, digital literacy, AI literacy, and the ability to verify information critically and ethically. These findings have implications for the development of history learning models that are more innovative, adaptive, and relevant to the educational needs of the 21st century