Teaching History for the Common Good

The history curriculum and its personal connection to students from minority ethnic backgrounds

“…This stance stresses the importance of working with evidence to see how the past is constructed, but also emphasizes the importance of using the past to understand the present and helping students appreciate the general lessons of the past, which may influence future actions. These insights, according to Barton and Levstik (2004), should ultimately support participation in democratic society by allowing students to learn from examples in the past. Barton and Levstik (2004) suggest a further two possible 'stances' as rationale for the study of history.…”

“…To an extent these disciplinary and postmodern approaches overlap with Barton and Levstik's (2004) description of another position, which they call the 'analytical stance'. This stance stresses the importance of working with evidence to see how the past is constructed, but also emphasizes the importance of using the past to understand the present and helping students appreciate the general lessons of the past, which may influence future actions.…”

“…In many ways this is unsurprising, as history's power to shape identity, collectively and individually, has been seen as one of the major reasons for its study (Barton andLevstik 2004, Marwick 1989). Barton and Levstik (2004) argue that 'identification' is a key 'stance' as a rationale for studying history; the need to identify with the past, be it at a personal, family or national level 'is a popular one in modern Western thought' (Barton and Levstik 2004: 46), but the emphasis in high schools is often on identifying with a progressive national story. This fits with Seixas' (2000Seixas' ( , 2007 notion of 'collective memory' where the intention is to teach the 'best' story of what happened in the past.…”

Mentoring novices' teaching of historical reasoning: Opportunities for pedagogical content knowledge development through mentor-facilitated practice

“…Research suggests, however, that teaching and learning historical reasoning is uncommon in history classrooms across international borders (Barton & Levstik, 2004;Carretero et al, 2012;Saye & SSIRC, 2013;Seixas & Peck, 2004;Symcox & Wilschut, 2009). Obstacles to such instruction include a lack of instructional time and resources, content heavy curriculum that covers wide expanses of time, and testing focused on low-level, recall of historical facts.…”

The Development of Ethical Civic Actors in Divided Societies: A Longitudinal Case

“…We define "ethical civic actors" as competent and responsible citizens, who recognize their responsibility to participate in creating and upholding a just and democratic society and are capable of taking prosocial action that helps to fend off threats to democracy and rectify injustices in their worlds. They are able to form thoughtful, reasoned judgments about social and civic matters, are concerned about the rights and welfare of others, have the capacity to deliberate with others about issues affecting the common good, and believe that they can make a positive difference in relation to these matters [Barton & Levstik, 2004;Beaumont, 2010;Cohen, Pickerel, & Levine, 2010;Gould, Hall Jamieson, Levine, McConnell, Smith, McKinley-Browning, & Cambell, 2010;Malin, Ballard, Attai, Colby, & Damon, 2014;Youniss & Levine, 2009].…”