The Ghanaian senior high-school history curriculum encourages teachers to guide students to explore, question and construct historical interpretations, rather than accept established historical narratives. This study investigates how those teachers conceive and implement the curriculum intent by exploring their pedagogical reasoning and classroom practices. The project described in this paper draws from a range of investigative instruments including in-depth interviews, classroom observations, post-lesson interviews and teachers’ planning paperwork from 15 public senior high schools in Ghana’s Central Region. This research found that teachers’ pedagogical reasoning was consistent with constructivist educational theory as well as responsive to the history curriculum, but that their stated understandings did not align with classroom practice. The findings indicate limited constructivist strategies in history lessons, as most teachers were didactic in approach and tended to teach history as a grand narrative.
{"title":"History teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and the dynamics of classroom implementation in Ghana","authors":"G. Boadu, D. Donnelly, Heather Sharp","doi":"10.14324/herj.17.2.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14324/herj.17.2.04","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Ghanaian senior high-school history curriculum encourages teachers to guide students to explore, question and construct historical interpretations, rather than accept established historical narratives. This study investigates how those teachers conceive and implement the curriculum intent by exploring their pedagogical reasoning and classroom practices. The project described in this paper draws from a range of investigative instruments including in-depth interviews, classroom observations, post-lesson interviews and teachers’ planning paperwork from 15 public senior high schools in Ghana’s Central Region. This research found that teachers’ pedagogical reasoning was consistent with constructivist educational theory as well as responsive to the history curriculum, but that their stated understandings did not align with classroom practice. The findings indicate limited constructivist strategies in history lessons, as most teachers were didactic in approach and tended to teach history as a grand narrative.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124292876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Historical significance is a historical thinking concept. Being able to identify historical significance is viewed as important for understanding change and continuity in the past, and for understanding the way ‘history’ is constructed by present society. This article discusses how Swedish students in Grade 5 (age 11 years) perceive and understand historical significance without having received prior instruction on how to identify historical significance. The results show that the students see thrilling and exciting events in the past as significant, as well as the events, inventions, ideas and values that have influenced the present or changed the course of history in some way. In this paper, I compare students’ answers to definitions of historical significance formulated by Christine Counsell (2004) and Matthew Bradshaw (2006). For the study, 67 students were interviewed in semi-structured interviews in small groups. They attended six different schools in the middle part of Sweden and came from varying backgrounds. Regardless of their backgrounds or origins, the students see the history culture of the majority, as presented in their history education, as their own.
{"title":"How younger students perceive and identify historical significance","authors":"K. Bergman","doi":"10.14324/herj.17.2.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14324/herj.17.2.03","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Historical significance is a historical thinking concept. Being able to identify historical significance is viewed as important for understanding change and continuity in the past, and for understanding the way ‘history’ is constructed by present society. This article discusses how Swedish students in Grade 5 (age 11 years) perceive and understand historical significance without having received prior instruction on how to identify historical significance. The results show that the students see thrilling and exciting events in the past as significant, as well as the events, inventions, ideas and values that have influenced the present or changed the course of history in some way. In this paper, I compare students’ answers to definitions of historical significance formulated by Christine Counsell (2004) and Matthew Bradshaw (2006). For the study, 67 students were interviewed in semi-structured interviews in small groups. They attended six different schools in the middle part of Sweden and came from varying backgrounds. Regardless of their backgrounds or origins, the students see the history culture of the majority, as presented in their history education, as their own.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129942780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
History education comprises moral issues and moral aspects, often perceived as an important and meaning-making foundation that makes learning relevant and interesting. The interrelationship between time layers fuels historical interpretations and facilitates perceptions of moral issues. This article focuses on a study investigating how secondary school students express inter-temporal relationships in encounters with a morally challenging historical event, which for the participants would have been a moral dilemma. Using historical consciousness as the theoretical framework, a matrix linking two prominent theoretical models – Jörn Rüsen’s (2004) types of narratives and Ann Chinnery’s (2013) strands of historical consciousness – was developed to analyse and categorize secondary school students’ expressions of temporal orientation. To carry out the research, 15-year-old Finnish and Swedish students read an excerpt from Christopher Browning’s (2017) book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (originally published in 1992). The students answered and discussed open-ended questions regarding the relevance of the text to their lives and others’ lives, and the applicability of this historical situation to Europe now and in the future. Using this empirical material, the analysis provides a tentative overarching depiction of students’ expressions of temporal orientation, and reports on findings of how temporal orientations relate to moral reflection.
{"title":"Identifying aspects of temporal orientation in students’ moral reflections","authors":"Niklas Ammert","doi":"10.14324/herj.17.2.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14324/herj.17.2.01","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000History education comprises moral issues and moral aspects, often perceived as an important and meaning-making foundation that makes learning relevant and interesting. The interrelationship between time layers fuels historical interpretations and facilitates perceptions of moral issues. This article focuses on a study investigating how secondary school students express inter-temporal relationships in encounters with a morally challenging historical event, which for the participants would have been a moral dilemma. Using historical consciousness as the theoretical framework, a matrix linking two prominent theoretical models – Jörn Rüsen’s (2004) types of narratives and Ann Chinnery’s (2013) strands of historical consciousness – was developed to analyse and categorize secondary school students’ expressions of temporal orientation. To carry out the research, 15-year-old Finnish and Swedish students read an excerpt from Christopher Browning’s (2017) book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (originally published in 1992). The students answered and discussed open-ended questions regarding the relevance of the text to their lives and others’ lives, and the applicability of this historical situation to Europe now and in the future. Using this empirical material, the analysis provides a tentative overarching depiction of students’ expressions of temporal orientation, and reports on findings of how temporal orientations relate to moral reflection.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129556628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Issue information for History Education Research Journal 17(2).
历史教育研究杂志17(2)刊发信息。
{"title":"Table of Contents: History Education Research Journal 17(2)","authors":"","doi":"10.14324/herj.17.2.00","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14324/herj.17.2.00","url":null,"abstract":"Issue information for History Education Research Journal 17(2).","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"81 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133748755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 2018, the toy manufacturer Playmobil launched a ‘History Class’ as an addition to its ‘Furnished School Building’. The materiality of this toy, and the selection of teaching media represented in coloured plastic (a blackboard with timeline, magnifying glass, parchment roll, stone axe, posters and other sources), convey an idea of history education based on hands-on learning, a variety of methods, original encounters and work with historical sources. This paper presents results of an international research project in which 12 children in Germany and Switzerland were interviewed with the help of this toy as a stimulus. The aim was to find out to what extent children are able to deconstruct the toy as a historical-cultural product. In addition, the interviews were intended to grasp the children’s views on the ideal teaching of history. The data are evaluated using grounded theory methodology. The results show that the pupils express clear wishes as to how history teaching should be structured. A critical distance to the toy was not taken.
{"title":"‘With these exhibits many interesting things can be learned about past times’: Playmobil’s History Class – representations, reflections and expectations","authors":"S. Barsch, C. Mathis","doi":"10.14324/herj.17.2.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14324/herj.17.2.02","url":null,"abstract":"In 2018, the toy manufacturer Playmobil launched a ‘History Class’ as an addition to its ‘Furnished School Building’. The materiality of this toy, and the selection of teaching media represented in coloured plastic (a blackboard with timeline, magnifying glass, parchment roll, stone axe, posters and other sources), convey an idea of history education based on hands-on learning, a variety of methods, original encounters and work with historical sources. This paper presents results of an international research project in which 12 children in Germany and Switzerland were interviewed with the help of this toy as a stimulus. The aim was to find out to what extent children are able to deconstruct the toy as a historical-cultural product. In addition, the interviews were intended to grasp the children’s views on the ideal teaching of history. The data are evaluated using grounded theory methodology. The results show that the pupils express clear wishes as to how history teaching should be structured. A critical distance to the toy was not taken.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133280876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In Finland, history is taught in comprehensive schools at both primary and secondary levels. In primary schools, teachers are qualified class teachers who study one or two history courses during their teacher education. The amount of history taught in teacher education is limited, but student class teachers have studied history while at comprehensive school and general upper secondary school, and they have lived experience of historical cultures as members of different groups and communities. Thus, they have conceptions of what history teaching in school is, and what it should be. In this article, student class teachers’ conceptions of teaching history were examined using data (n=92) consisting of students’ writings at the beginning of their history studies. A phenomenographic approach was used to identify and characterize different conceptions. The results showed that student class teachers considered understanding of the present to be the most important objective in school history. Based on their own school experiences, they highlighted the significance of the big picture instead of learning scattered facts and details. Students also stressed the importance of the motivation to study history. Their conceptions are similar to the curriculum objectives for history teaching in primary school.
{"title":"What is important in history teaching? Student class teachers’ conceptions","authors":"Riitta Tallavaara, Matti Rautiainen","doi":"10.14324/herj.17.2.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14324/herj.17.2.07","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In Finland, history is taught in comprehensive schools at both primary and secondary levels. In primary schools, teachers are qualified class teachers who study one or two history courses during their teacher education. The amount of history taught in teacher education is limited, but student class teachers have studied history while at comprehensive school and general upper secondary school, and they have lived experience of historical cultures as members of different groups and communities. Thus, they have conceptions of what history teaching in school is, and what it should be. In this article, student class teachers’ conceptions of teaching history were examined using data (n=92) consisting of students’ writings at the beginning of their history studies. A phenomenographic approach was used to identify and characterize different conceptions. The results showed that student class teachers considered understanding of the present to be the most important objective in school history. Based on their own school experiences, they highlighted the significance of the big picture instead of learning scattered facts and details. Students also stressed the importance of the motivation to study history. Their conceptions are similar to the curriculum objectives for history teaching in primary school.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"89 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116200153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper reflects on aspects of historical understanding developed in a classroom in which moving-image sources are analysed. Considered as non-fictional representations of the past, moving-image sources comprised broadcast images of historical events on newsreels, news broadcasts and documentaries. The study, carried out in a Maltese state secondary school, involved students (aged 15/16 years) analysing moving images as historical sources in their history lessons. Various aspects of understanding were identified: making connections with media content; using knowledge of one topic to shape another; discussing forms of historical knowledge in relation to each other; connecting with the wider historical picture; and constructing meaning using various language strategies. It is argued that these aspects offer a characterization of historical understanding when analysing broadcast footage of historical events in a constructivist classroom. It is suggested that underlying these aspects was students’ prior historical knowledge. I highlight the importance of maximizing on opportunities provided by moving-image sources to support understanding, particularly the co-construction of knowledge.
{"title":"What aspects of historical understanding feature in the analysis of moving-image sources in the history classroom?","authors":"Alexander Cutajar","doi":"10.14324/herj.17.2.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14324/herj.17.2.05","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper reflects on aspects of historical understanding developed in a classroom in which moving-image sources are analysed. Considered as non-fictional representations of the past, moving-image sources comprised broadcast images of historical events on newsreels, news broadcasts and documentaries. The study, carried out in a Maltese state secondary school, involved students (aged 15/16 years) analysing moving images as historical sources in their history lessons. Various aspects of understanding were identified: making connections with media content; using knowledge of one topic to shape another; discussing forms of historical knowledge in relation to each other; connecting with the wider historical picture; and constructing meaning using various language strategies. It is argued that these aspects offer a characterization of historical understanding when analysing broadcast footage of historical events in a constructivist classroom. It is suggested that underlying these aspects was students’ prior historical knowledge. I highlight the importance of maximizing on opportunities provided by moving-image sources to support understanding, particularly the co-construction of knowledge.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"201 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133579112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In history education, the deconstruction of narratives is an important skill for students. The skill teaches them to look critically at the offered texts. In this study, we investigated the extent to which students are able to critically analyse the narratives in their history textbooks. To answer this question, we asked 106 students in pre-university education (16–17 years of age) to read and compare two texts – from two different textbooks – about a turning point in the development of the Dutch state and democracy: the introduction of universal suffrage for men and women in 1917–19. One group of students (N=10) worked on the assignment while thinking aloud. We found that most students recognized the author’s voice in the selection of persons and dates and in the attention paid to a particular topic, but that they hardly mentioned recognizing the voice in aspects such as the choice of words or headings. The students who analysed and compared the texts while thinking aloud all indicated after the assignment that they understood that these texts are different interpretations of the same historical development.
{"title":"Dutch students’ understanding of the interpretative nature of textbooks when comparing two texts about a significant event in the development of democracy","authors":"A. Houwen, C. Boxtel, Paul Holthuis","doi":"10.14324/herj.17.2.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14324/herj.17.2.06","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In history education, the deconstruction of narratives is an important skill for students. The skill teaches them to look critically at the offered texts. In this study, we investigated the extent to which students are able to critically analyse the narratives in their history textbooks. To answer this question, we asked 106 students in pre-university education (16–17 years of age) to read and compare two texts – from two different textbooks – about a turning point in the development of the Dutch state and democracy: the introduction of universal suffrage for men and women in 1917–19. One group of students (N=10) worked on the assignment while thinking aloud. We found that most students recognized the author’s voice in the selection of persons and dates and in the attention paid to a particular topic, but that they hardly mentioned recognizing the voice in aspects such as the choice of words or headings. The students who analysed and compared the texts while thinking aloud all indicated after the assignment that they understood that these texts are different interpretations of the same historical development.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131065198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article is an empirical analysis of history teaching as a communicative process. Dialogic history teaching develops as a designed meaning-making process that depends on thorough pedagogical strategies and decisions, and requires cohesion in teacher expectations, introductions and interventions. A micro-dialogic study is presented in this article to document a paradoxical teaching situation where history as subject-related content all but disappeared from a group of students' meaning-making processes because they were preoccupied with figuring out their teacher's intentions. History teaching thus turned into 'just teaching' without the teacher or the students being aware of it. A strong emphasis on history teaching as a communicative process and dialogue as a key pedagogical tool have potential with regard to pedagogical decision-making and strategies on the one hand, and for relationships between students and history as subject-related content on the other. The analysis presented in this article contributes to a growing field of studies on dialogic history teaching, of which the focus on students as an important part of classroom dialogues is central.
{"title":"History teaching as a designed meaning-making process: Teacher facilitation of student–subject relationships","authors":"H. Knudsen","doi":"10.18546/herj.17.1.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18546/herj.17.1.04","url":null,"abstract":"This article is an empirical analysis of history teaching as a communicative process. Dialogic history teaching develops as a designed meaning-making process that depends on thorough pedagogical strategies and decisions, and requires cohesion in teacher expectations, introductions and\u0000 interventions. A micro-dialogic study is presented in this article to document a paradoxical teaching situation where history as subject-related content all but disappeared from a group of students' meaning-making processes because they were preoccupied with figuring out their teacher's intentions.\u0000 History teaching thus turned into 'just teaching' without the teacher or the students being aware of it. A strong emphasis on history teaching as a communicative process and dialogue as a key pedagogical tool have potential with regard to pedagogical decision-making and strategies on\u0000 the one hand, and for relationships between students and history as subject-related content on the other. The analysis presented in this article contributes to a growing field of studies on dialogic history teaching, of which the focus on students as an important part of classroom dialogues\u0000 is central.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"9 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123804083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The study investigates upper secondary school students' use of counterfactual reasoning when engaging in a task concerning historical explanation. The study analyses student answers to a prompt asking them to evaluate the causal importance of a historical actor for a historical event, aiming to characterize the counterfactuals used, as well as applying possible criteria for what can be considered a qualified counterfactual. The criteria for qualification of counterfactuals are based on theoretical proposals about the potential of counterfactuals in relation to historical explanation. The findings indicate that a majority of the students involved use counterfactuals in their reasoning about explanatory importance, most of them employing counterfactual reasoning in relation to the historical actor. The analysis of qualification indicates that student reasoning becomes more qualified when students instead focus on structural factors, include both structures and actors in their counterfactual reasoning, or support their reasoning by making comparisons.
{"title":"Qualifying counterfactuals: Students' use of counterfactuals for evaluating historical explanations","authors":"Joakim Wendell","doi":"10.18546/herj.17.1.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18546/herj.17.1.05","url":null,"abstract":"The study investigates upper secondary school students' use of counterfactual reasoning when engaging in a task concerning historical explanation. The study analyses student answers to a prompt asking them to evaluate the causal importance of a historical actor for a historical event,\u0000 aiming to characterize the counterfactuals used, as well as applying possible criteria for what can be considered a qualified counterfactual. The criteria for qualification of counterfactuals are based on theoretical proposals about the potential of counterfactuals in relation to historical\u0000 explanation. The findings indicate that a majority of the students involved use counterfactuals in their reasoning about explanatory importance, most of them employing counterfactual reasoning in relation to the historical actor. The analysis of qualification indicates that student reasoning\u0000 becomes more qualified when students instead focus on structural factors, include both structures and actors in their counterfactual reasoning, or support their reasoning by making comparisons.","PeriodicalId":409544,"journal":{"name":"History Education Research Journal","volume":"324 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134246342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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