One Classroom, Two Teachers? Historical Thinking and Indigenous Education in Canada

Historical Empathy: A Cognitive-Affective Theory for History Education in Canada

“…In Canada, history education research in the last few decades has centred on three main purposes for teaching and learning history in schools: (1) developing historical thinking and historical consciousness (Clark, 2011(Clark, , 2018Duquette, 2015;Gibson, 2017Gibson, , 2021Lévesque, 2008;Peck, 2011;Seixas, 2004Seixas, , 2006Seixas & Morton, 2013); (2) fostering citizenship within a democratic society (Osborne, 1995(Osborne, , 1996Sears, 2011);and (3) deconstructing popular narratives through decolonizing and anti-racist histories (Cutrara, 2018;Gibson & Case, 2019;McGregor, 2017;Miles, 2018;Stanley, 2000;Taylor, 2018).…”

“…However, some scholars in Canada have raised concerns about the incommensurability of historical thinking, informed by Western/Enlightenment traditions, and Indigenous epistemologies (Cutrara, 2018;Marker, 2011;Seixas, 2012). In response to these concerns, other scholars have identified common ground between historical thinking and Indigenous education, and they suggest ways forward (McGregor, 2017;Gibson & Case, 2019). In addition to possible alignments with the six historical thinking concepts conceptualized by Peter Seixas (Gibson & Case, 2019), historical empathy offers another way forward that could be more inclusive of Indigenous ways of knowing about the past.…”

“…Despite the importance of student reflexivity and positionality to developing historical thinking, these concepts are not emphasized in Seixas and Morton's (2013) historical thinking framework. With decolonizing goals in mind, history education researchers in Canada have called for increased attention to considering one's positionality and reflecting on individual and collective identities when studying the past (Cutrara, 2018;McGregor, 2017;Miles, 2018;Taylor, 2018). Thus, historical empathy could support learning history within cross-cultural contexts.…”

Teaching and learning the legacy of residential schools for remembering and reconciliation in Canada

“…In so doing, the authors acknowledge that the TRC Calls to Action present history educators with significant challenges that are by no means unsurmountable. Historical thinking, as it has evolved within Canada -Gibson and Case (2019) argue -is well positioned to respond to such challenges; they are not alone in this assertion (Lévesque, 2016a(Lévesque, , 2016bMcGregor, 2017;Miles, 2018) -although both McGregor and Miles have acknowledged that merging historical thinking with Indigenous ways of knowing presents epistemological constraints that may very well be unsurmountable.…”

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“…Careful attention is needed to the constructions of ethical judgments that are imported into the pages of curriculum documents and, in particular, the ways of knowing, doing and being that are privileged. In Canada, scholars have theorized diverse types of Indigenous historical consciousness and ways of knowing the past (Brownlie, 2009;Carlson, 2010;Marker, 2011Marker, , 2019, and have debated the degree to which historical thinking can accommodate Indigenous ways of knowing (Cutrara, 2018;Gibson & Case, 2019;McGregor, 2017;Seixas, 2012). Similarly, it is an open question about the extent that Western philosophies of ethics can and should accommodate other ways of determining what living a worthwhile life consists of.…”