Social Studies Teachers' Conceptions of History: Calling on Historiography

Abstract

In this qualitative research study, the author investigated social studies teachers' conceptions of history by conducting in-depth, semistructured interviews with 12 in-service teachers. Results indicated that participants tended to look at the outcome of historical knowledge construction without considering its process or mentioning forces that shape historical writing. Rather than considering the whole relationship or interplay between the past, the recorded past, and the historian, participants observed a part of the relationship among distinctive yet interrelated components of history. A realistic view of the world and a naive epistemological view of history seemed to characterize the conceptions of most participants who viewed history as objective knowledge. Most participants did not perceive the relevancy of intellectual foundations of history to their profession and professional development.

Investigating Student Teachers’ Conceptions of Social Studies through the Multi-dimensional Structure of the Epistemological Beliefs

“…On the other hand, those individuals who believe that knowledge is complex and interrelated may assess historical events in consideration with their multi-dimensional characteristics and inter-relatedness. Examining social studies teachers' conceptions of history, Yılmaz (2008) found that teachers with naive epistemological beliefs regard historical knowledge as objective facts. Kösemen and Şahin (2014) studied social studies teachers' views on social studies curriculum and compared those viewpoints with their epistemological beliefs.…”

History Teachers’ Knowledge of Inquiry Methods

“…Next to this, the results suggest that part of the differences in teachers' performance might be related to their training prior to the start of their career (McDiarmid, 1994;Yilmaz, 2010). More specifically, it was found that all 9 teachers with an integral approach held a master degree of a training program that had introduced them to academic history (with the exception of teacher 19, who had followed a political sciences program).…”

“…It turns out that even teachers with a deep understanding of how historical knowledge is constructed, may choose not share this knowledge with their students, because doing so runs counter to their beliefs about school history (Barton & Levstik, 2003;McDiarmid, 1994). Even so, others have argued that history teachers should have a basic understanding of inquiry methods, if they are to support their students during classroom inquiries (Martin & MonteSano, 2008;Yilmaz, 2010). Unfortunately, there is not much information available about the extent to which teachers know how to conduct a historical inquiry.…”

A History teacher educator's reflections after classroom observations: The need for multi-perspectives, oral history and historiography in a history methodology course

“…The debate in the literature concerning changing teachers' practice in the history classroom suggested an approach which included more disciplinary knowledge (Yilmaz, 2008;Fellace, 2009;Parkes, 2011) and one which encompassed a bigger purpose to the teaching history in the classroom, where "students should Yesterday&Today, No. 16, December 2016 learn history to contribute to a participatory, pluralistic democracy" (Barton & Levstik, 2004:259).…”

“…preservice teachers to the disciplinary underpinnings of history (Yilmaz, 2008;Fellace, 2009;Parkes, 2011). In this article, I argue that reviewing an oral history assignment, based on a topic such as "Life before and after 1994 in South Africa", has the potential to develop a more in-depth understanding of the discipline with preservice teachers.…”