Deconstructing Differences in African-American and European-American Adolescents’ Perspectives on U.S. History

Abstract

Recent proposals for reforming the K-12 history curriculum have recommended revising the traditional narrative on U.S. history by including the historical experiences of diverse racial groups. The proposals, however, have not considered the historical perspectives that young people bring to historical inquiry. After reviewing contemporary frameworks for teaching U.S. history in public schools, I present data from one teacher's history classes that demonstrate that African-American and European-American adolescents constructed different explanations of significant actors, events, and themes in U.S. history. The two groups also constructed conflicting beliefs about the credibility of secondary historical sources. Representative of more substantive differences in the perspectives that the adolescents brought to historical inquiry, the differences in adolescents' historical understandings arose from race-related differences in the lived experiences of the adolescents themselves and their family members. Given these findings, I point out the limitations of current public school history curricular frameworks and draw on contemporary scholarship to propose a curricular framework which takes into account the differences in historical perspectives constructed by the African-American and European-American students in this study.

Sensitive ‘Heritage’ of Slavery in a Multicultural Classroom: Pupils’ Ideas Regarding Significance

“…Contrary to the findings of Epstein (1998), the perspectives of the pupils in our study could not always be interpreted meaningfully along the lines of a perceived 'black' or 'white' ethnic identity. Earlier research noted that Dutch pupils of Caribbean background were significantly more proud of and felt more connected to their family history than native Dutch pupils (Grever et al, 2011).…”

“…For many other pupils, learning about slavery in school will be their first introduction to the topic. Research has shown that pupils' attribution of significance to the past is influenced by their cultural and ethnic background and by constructions of significance that are present in society and mediated by, for example, media, peers, family and heritage institutions (Barton & Levstik, 2008;Epstein, 1998;Levstik, 2008;Seixas, 1993). However, not much is known about the ways in which pupils attribute significance to what is presented as heritage, in particular sensitive or contested heritage.…”

Preparing to Teach a Slavery Past: History Teachers and Educators as Navigators of Historical Distance

“…Several studies have shown how students' ideas about history are shaped by various configurations of historical distancing in family stories, museum exhibitions, and digital media (Epstein, 1998;Grever, Pelzer, & Haydn, 2011;Peck, 2010;R. Phillips, 2002;Seixas, 1993;Smith et al, 2011).…”

Social Studies, Citizenship Education, and the Search for an American Identity: An Argument against a Unifying Narrative

“…Research within social studies education has shown that many groups within American society often do not feel the traditional narrative speaks to them, resulting in adverse attitudes toward both education and society (Cooks & Epstein, 2000;Epstein, 1998;Forbes, 2000). Returning to Du Bois (1897Bois ( /2008, who states, "The history of the world is the history, not of individuals, but of groups" (p. 144), social studies educators should frame their instruction as exposing their students to competing American narratives.…”