The purpose of this research is to investigate the development of students’ knowledge in the process
of learning history. The research questions are as follows: (1) How do students construct their
knowledge of history? (2) What main factors affect whether students accept or reject historical
information? This research is a qualitative project adopting Charmaz’s (2006) grounded theory
framework to focus on the position of language use in the development of students’ knowledge of
history. In total, 30 postgraduate students of the History Education Department, Sebelas Maret
University, enrolled in a course on the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, participated in this
research. To analyze students’ language use, I used critical discourse analysis focusing on their
speech acts and discursive practice. The findings of the research show that students have autonomy
to construct their knowledge of history. Students could accept or reject the historical information
that arose throughout the learning process. Two factors affected whether students accepted or
rejected the historical information: their prior knowledge and discursive practice. Students
construct their knowledge of history through a dialectical process in the form of such discursive
practice between their ideology, prior knowledge, and historical information. The findings of the
research indicate that language use, especially in the form of discursive practice, determines the
transmission and development of knowledge of history in the learning process.  
 
Key words: learning history, knowledge development, knowledge of history