One of the most relevant strategies that shapes the education of the citizenry can be found in the formation of a historical consciousness. Yet the very idea of historical consciousness as a skill to be taught cannot be taken for granted. In order to disrupt the educational common sense, I will analyze the ways in which historical consciousness has been translated from the philosophical-historical field into pedagogical discourses since the 1970s. My analysis will reveal the relations between historical consciousness and the constitution of a normative citizenship. This process binds ‘responsible’ action and thought to the inclusion of the self within a consensualized teachable historical narrative.