Historical Understanding among Adolescents in a Multicultural Setting

Abstract

The author of this study examines six students' construction of historical knowledge as shaped by school and family. The author explores students' perceptions of the disjunctions and interactions between the two sources of historical understandings. Students representing a range of social studies achievement and ethnic backgrounds were selected from grade II classes in a large, urban, multicultural school. Classroom participant-observations and two in-depth interviews with each student provide the data. The students' patterns of historical understanding are analyzed with particular attention to the following elements: historical significance, historical evidence and authority, and historical agency, empathy, and moral judgment.The author suggests that family experiences and other sources of information outside school strongly influence the way in which students understand history. He explores some of the problems generated when the complexities of historical meaning making remain unrecognized in school social studies. Finally, the author suggests advantages, particularly in the multicultural classroom, of shaping curricular content and classroom activities to enable students to examine and build upon their prior historical knowledge.

Changing conceptions of historical thinking in History education: an Australian case study

“…Scholarship in the field of History education uses several terms that are, arguably, Seixas, 1993a;1993b). Wilson and Wineburg (1998) suggest four indicators of "depth" in history: (1) understanding the multiple facets of an historical concept or event; (2) knowing the details of these; (3) understanding the qualified incomplete nature of historical knowledge; and (4) being able to integrate these understandings into broader causal and thematic links.…”

Historical Reasoning: Towards a Framework for Analyzing Students’ Reasoning about the Past

“…Such a more inclusive view of the activities that makes up the process of historical reasoning is lacking in most of the research work (cf. Seixas 1993).…”

L’enseignement au Québec et en France des questions controversées en histoire : tensions entre politique du passé et politique de la reconnaissance dans les curricula

“…Les efforts déployés par les groupes pour inclure leurs mémoires du passé dans la narration officielle et les variations de l'interprétation de l'histoire par les élèves (selon l'âge, la classe sociale, l'ethnie, etc.) ou par les systèmes scolaires sont bien documentés (Audet, 2006;Barton, , 2005Barton et Levstik, 1998Charland, 2003;Caouette, 2000;Epstein, 1997;Ferro, 2004;Julien, 2005;Laville, 2000;Lee, Ashby et Dickinson, 2001;Létourneau, 2006;Levstik, 2000Levstik, , 2001McCully et Barton, 2003;Sandwell, 2006;Seixas, 1993aSeixas, , 1994Seixas, , 1997Tutiaux-Guillon et Nourrisson, 2003;Tutiaux-Guillon, N. et M.-J. Mousseau, 1998;Wertsch, 1999Wertsch, , 2002Wineburg, 2001;Zimmerman, 2002), mais les controverses générées par ces différences sont moins étudiées.…”