This thesis argues that the question of the meaning of historical knowledge, posed from the students point of view, can shed light on their relation to knowledge and to school. To define this problematic of the relationship to knowledge, we have constructed it following a double approach, one of which, significant, aims to bring out the sociological relevance of school knowledge, the other, comprehensive, tries to better understand what is education in the historical sciences. The critical view we have taken of the act of learning in the current context of education has made it possible to appreciate historical learning as a much more complex reality than the teaching methods alone suggest. Firstly, because learning is a multifaceted question referring to various manifestations of the meaning of knowledge, and in this case, the learning process involves, among other things, the subjectivity of the student to relate it to the issues at stake. citizenship education. In the wake of what the authors suggest about the relationship to knowledge (Charlot 1997; Lahire & Johsua 1999; Joigneaux & Rochex 2008; Demba 2010; Lésogho 2014), we have developed a conceptual framework at the crossroads of didactic and sociology in order to illuminate the relationship of students to knowledge. This hybrid framework of thought has opened up a new space of analysis and access to other possibilities for thinking, addressing and understanding historical learning. The combination of conceptual issues, which in the end has turned our research focus towards sociodidactic issues of relation to knowledge, is one of the main contributions of this thesis. On the methodological level, the comprehensive paradigm has proved to be an interesting choice to stand out from a negative reading of learning situations to a positive reading that reflects the student's subjective experience. In the light of the theoretical and conceptual contributions, innovative angles of thought formulated made it possible to highlight singular subjects situated in a historicity, but able to distance themselves from them in a reflexive way thanks to a contradictory reading of history. The study confirms situations and conditions affecting the construction of students' relationship to knowledge and school.