Abstract:This article explores how learning historical interpretation of Viking-age archaeological artefacts from an intercultural perspective could be facilitated through historical enquiry in primary school. Three design principles were formulated for the teaching: (1) enquiry based upon an
authentic intercultural question; (2) enquiry with a focus on source interpretation; and (3) enquiry using material culture in the form of archaeological artefacts. Two questions were addressed: first, how did the teaching design… Show more
“…The approach requires teachers, as experts on investigating social phenomena, to mentor, and guide students (Holmberg et al, 2022; Saye, 2017). In designing the teaching, the research group tried to motivate students by establishing authentic teaching problems (Johansson, 2019; Saye & Brush, 2006) through compelling questions such as: “Should you trust our government agencies?” (Tulip High), and “Can Swedish society be strengthened through increased trust?” (Rose High).…”
Section: Methods and Empirical Materialsmentioning
Democratic school systems are expected to equip students with the knowledge, abilities, and attitudes needed for life as citizens, particularly through social science education. Disciplinary knowledge, derived from the academic counterparts to school subjects, is essential in developing these skills. However, research has also emphasized the importance of life-world perspectives, where students’ experiences are included and taken seriously in teaching. This study suggests that the theory of (civic) narrative competence can function as a bridge between the disciplinary domain and the life-world domain in its focus on how students’ civic reasoning can be developed through teaching. The article uses narrative theory to explore how the students’ civic narratives changed and became more nuanced after a teaching segment focusing on social and political trust. In the article, we demonstrate how the students’ personal experiences colored their interpretations and orientations before the teaching segment and how their civic narratives were developed through the implemented teaching, which provided them with concepts, a theoretical model, and empirical examples. We found that the students did not discard previous perceptions after the teaching segment, but integrated them into their new knowledge and orientations, thus integrating the life-world and disciplinary domains.
“…The approach requires teachers, as experts on investigating social phenomena, to mentor, and guide students (Holmberg et al, 2022; Saye, 2017). In designing the teaching, the research group tried to motivate students by establishing authentic teaching problems (Johansson, 2019; Saye & Brush, 2006) through compelling questions such as: “Should you trust our government agencies?” (Tulip High), and “Can Swedish society be strengthened through increased trust?” (Rose High).…”
Section: Methods and Empirical Materialsmentioning
Democratic school systems are expected to equip students with the knowledge, abilities, and attitudes needed for life as citizens, particularly through social science education. Disciplinary knowledge, derived from the academic counterparts to school subjects, is essential in developing these skills. However, research has also emphasized the importance of life-world perspectives, where students’ experiences are included and taken seriously in teaching. This study suggests that the theory of (civic) narrative competence can function as a bridge between the disciplinary domain and the life-world domain in its focus on how students’ civic reasoning can be developed through teaching. The article uses narrative theory to explore how the students’ civic narratives changed and became more nuanced after a teaching segment focusing on social and political trust. In the article, we demonstrate how the students’ personal experiences colored their interpretations and orientations before the teaching segment and how their civic narratives were developed through the implemented teaching, which provided them with concepts, a theoretical model, and empirical examples. We found that the students did not discard previous perceptions after the teaching segment, but integrated them into their new knowledge and orientations, thus integrating the life-world and disciplinary domains.
“…As such, second-order concepts help to analytically describe what historical learning is when it comes to what procedures students need to obtain. In connection with intercultural learning, the importance of interpreting sources and understanding evidence has been discussed (Bain, 2006;Johansson, 2019), as well as significance (Savenije et al, 2014) and historical empathy and agency (Seixas, 1993(Seixas, , 2012.…”
Section: Intercultural Historical Learning As Content and Learningmentioning
The aim of this article is to explore the processes of learning when students are engaged in intercultural historical learning (IHL), specifically how spaces of learning were, or were not, opened by students’ struggle to construct meaning. Since IHL is complex, involving both intrinsic disciplinary and extrinsic curricular goals, it is vital to understand this process in detail. The research questions address which aspects seem to activate intercultural learning, and which ones hinder or complicate it. The methodological approach employed was an instrumental, multisite case study where three teaching–learning sequences from two secondary classrooms were investigated. Here, the concepts of ‘decentring’ and ‘perspective recognition’, as aspects of IHL, were seen as threshold concepts. The threshold concepts framework – and specifically the idea of ‘liminal space’, a ‘place of potential learning’, the in-between moments in the learning process where students find themselves before ‘getting it’ – was applied as an analytical tool to uncover and describe specific moments in the selected teaching–learning sequences. Several liminal spaces were unpacked, and it transpired that ‘troublesomeness’ is an integral, potentially productive component when students navigate liminal space as a place for intercultural learning. ‘Barriers’ that obstructed learning, as well as possible ‘entry points’ where a student steps into a productive liminal space, were identified, as well as some major enabling breakthrough moments – ‘junctures’ – for IHL.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.