Teacher Conceptions of History Revisited: Ideology, Curriculum, and Student Belief

Abstract

The cenfra! purpuse of this exploratory investigation LT to &scribe and stnaoze the teaching of history in five c l u~r o o m , each representing one of five typologies developed earlier, the sf oryteller, scientilfc historian, reiativisi/ref ormer, cosmic phiIosopher, and eclectic (Evans, 1989b). The study focuses on the effects of each teacher's conceptions of history on the transmitted ctrricuulurn und on student beliefs. Data collection included interviews with teachers, in-depth ab~rviztion, and interviews with students. Results suggest ?hut the impact of teacher conceptions vary considerably, that the teuching of hktory has little impact on student belief in four of the classrooms, and a profound impact in one, and that approaches to the teuching of hhtory are linked, implicit!y, to competing ideological orientations. Introduction'The recent report of the National Commission on Social Studies in the SchooF. calls fox replacement of current social studies offerings with history and geography (1989). This call for a return to the curricular paradigm of an earlier era gives the revival of history greater viability nationally, and must be seen within the context of the educational reform movements of the recent past, as part of an era of retrenchment in schools and society. The Commission" report contributes to the national trend toward making history the keystone of civic education and makes more attention to history in schools a strong likelihood. Thus, research and critical reflection on approaches to the teaching of history become more important than ever.Among s d studies educators, the Commission3 report has been greeted with considerable hostility. This may be due to the fact that the report does little to promote the goal of reflective teaching and the reflective testing of belief, an aim which many social studies theorists have long held as the rubon Correspondence: Ronald W. Evans, School of Teacher Education, San Diego Stale University, San Diego, CA 92182 Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 09:57 19 November 2014 d'etre of social studies instruction. Although I share the concerns of my colleagues about the revival of history (Evans, 1989a), at this juncture in curriculum history it may be most advantageous for us to ask, What approaches to teaching history are most likely to promote sustained critical reflection in students?The commission's report, when viewed in historical perspective, may not seem as disastrous as we are inclined to think, Despite periodic outbreaks of concern over the teaching of history in our schools, teachers tend to go about their tasks in routinized ways that have changed very little over the years. The teachers discussed in this exploratory research paper teach, for the most part, in the same ways that teachers have always taught (Cuban, 1984). Yet each teacher offers something slightly different, a nuance, an angle of vision, a philosophy, an ideology, or a technique different from the ways other teachers have taught. Do certain approaches to teaching history pro...

The roles of epistemology and ideology in teachers’ pedagogy with historical ‘media’

“…There is some evidence that teachers' epistemic beliefs about the nature of history have an impact on how they teach about the past, but the transfer of these beliefs to their pedagogy is not inevitable (Evans, 1988(Evans, , 1990Maggioni, Alexander, & Costich, 2007;Wineburg & Wilson, 1988;Yeager & Davis, 1996). Teachers who have adopted epistemic beliefs of history as described above should lead to practice that emphasizes critical analysis of historic artifacts or accounts in order to either critique or construct a historical narrative (VanSledright, 2002;Wineburg, 2001), including the identification of bias and motivations of the author, contextualizing the artifact or account, and deliberating any inconsistencies or interpretations.…”

Scaffolding Problem-Based Teaching in a Traditional Social Studies Classroom

“…Teachers' beliefs about knowledge, teaching, and learning exert major influences on the ways that they structure learning experiences (Honey & Moeller, 1990;Kagan, 1993;Kuhn, 1999;Onosko, 1991, Scheurman, 1998, Shulman, 1986). Teachers' beliefs or philosophy about the mission of social studies and history teaching may affect the choices they make toward more didactic or more empowering teaching (Bennett & Spaulding, 1992;Evans, 1989Evans, , 1990Fickel, 1999;Vinson, 1998). Some studies suggest that both deep understanding of and experience with the concepts and methodology of a discipline encourage teachers to engage their students with substantive inquiry (Bain, 1995;Merryfield, 1998;Wilson & Wineburg, 1988;Wineburg & Wilson, 1991), or that a lack of such knowledge inhibits this practice (Makler, 1994;Yeager & Davis, 1995).…”

Social Studies Teachers' Conceptions of History: Calling on Historiography

“…Researchers concerned with social studies teachers' conceptions of history investigated aspects of the topic such as the (a) relationship between teacher conceptions and teaching methods, (b) background factors influencing development of the conceptions of history, (c) effects of disciplinary backgrounds on teachers' conceptions and practices, (d) impact of teacher conceptions on students' beliefs about history, and (e) conceptions of history embodied by different types of teachers, for example, secondary school teachers' and teacher candidates' historical thinking related to historical texts (Evans, 1988(Evans, , 1989(Evans, , 1990Nichol & Guyver;2004;Virta, 2001;Wilson & Wineburg, 1988;Wineburg, 1991aWineburg, , 1991bYeager & Davis;1995). Researchers studied social studies teachers' conceptions in comparison with those of other teachers such as science teachers (Donnelly, 1999), or comparatively examined teacher conceptions within different cultural contexts (Hicks, 2005).…”