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Imagining a Critical Historical Thinking Pedagogy

Carla L. Peck

Professor, Faculty of Education

Director, Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future Partnership Research Project

carla.peck@ualberta.ca

@cpeck3

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Flaws:

We don’t actually know what youth know about their nation’s history.
An assumption that “more” history will lead to “better” citizens (and that all “better” citizens do is vote).

Claim: If only our youth knew about our nation’s past, they would be the “good” citizens we need them to be.

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Flaw #1: We don’t actually know what youth know about their nation’s history.

We have very little recent large-scale evidence of youth’s historical knowledge.
Angvik and von Borries (1997): Studied what youth knew about history, their perceptions of history teaching, how they interpreted, understood, and trust historical information, and how these understandings influenced their political attitudes and their expectations for the future.
Much has changed in the world since 1997, not least of which the political climate. Importantly, much has also changed in terms of research and pedagogy in history teaching and learning.

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In Canada and around the world, researchers are investigating students’ historical understandings.
Most of these studies are regional, small-scale, and provide a snapshot in time, rather than large-scale and/or longitudinal data about the contours and dimensions of students’ historical knowledge.
Canada has not seen a national-level academic research program in history education in more than 50 years.
A.B Hodgetts’ National History Project (1968) - lamented the “bland consensus version of history” that taught students about “nice, neat little acts of parliament” (pp. 19-24) and nothing of the debates and contentious nature of Canadian history

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What Culture? What Heritage? �A.B. Hodgetts, 1968

“We are teaching a … dry-as-dust chronological story of uninterrupted political and economic progress told without the controversy that is an inherent part of history. The great debates that could bring our history to life, the natural conflicts of opinion, the new interpretations of the past by successive generations of historians, …are all grayed out of existence…” (p.115-116).

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Flaw #2: “More” history will lead to “better” citizens

Based on the assumption that an increase in historical knowledge will automatically create “better” citizens.
Those calling for “more” history usually mean is “more historical content or knowledge” (i.e., FACTS)
We have very limited empirical evidence to support the claim that people with more factual historical knowledge make better decisions related to citizenship.
Contested understanding of what “good citizenship” means.

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What do calls for “more history” really mean?

Based on a misunderstanding of what history is: Those making such calls understand history as an accumulation of facts rather than a vibrant discipline of inquiry, investigation, and debate.
1970s – UK history education scholars challenged the content-only focus of traditional history instruction because it provided students with a great deal of pre-packaged historical information but little understanding of the structure of the discipline.
Instead, we should be developing students’ ability to “think historically”

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Since this time, a significant body of research has aimed to conceptualize the structure and form of historical thinking.
Much of this research focuses on “second-order historical concepts,” defined by Lee and Ashby as ideas that shape our understanding of the discipline as a form of knowledge.
Substantive Concepts: This is the “STUFF” of history - The “content” we teach/learn (e.g.: “the Aztecs,” “the Renaissance,” “revolution,” “WWI,” “the Chinese head tax,” etc.)
Procedural Concepts: This is the WAY we study the past. Using evidence, analyzing cause & consequence – and other concepts, help us learn about the past in deep ways.

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Historical

Significance

We can’t remember, learn, or study everything that ever happened.

What is important historically speaking?
Who or what should be remembered, researched, taught and learned?

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Evidence

How do we know we know what we know about the past?

Asks us to consider:

How reliable is the evidence?
What other evidence exists?
What other interpretations are possible?

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Continuity and Change

How can we make sense of the complex course of history?

Asks us to look for similarities and differences in the lives and conditions of people and societies that came before us.

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Cause and Consequence

Shifts our focus to the multiple causes and consequences of historical events.

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Historical Perspectives

Asks us not to judge the past by today’s standards.

How can we better understand the foreignness of the past, and the different social, cultural, intellectual, and even emotional contexts that shaped people’s lives and actions in the past?

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Ethical Dimensions of History

We make ethical judgments about people and events in the past in order to face the ethical issues of today.

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In a historical thinking pedagogical approach, procedural concepts are taught alongside substantive concepts such as revolution, president, and nation that constitute “what history is about.”

Historical thinking pedagogy deepens students’ understanding of historical content while also developing increasingly sophisticated understandings of how historical knowledge is produced.

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Critical and sociocultural researchers have analyzed:

How historical and contemporary power relations influence the construction of official historical narratives;

How students who affiliate with dominant and/or non-dominant cultures appropriate, resist, or in other ways (dis)engage with state-sanctioned narratives;

How teachers’ identities and ideologies influence the historical content and concepts presented in classrooms.

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An open classroom climate where students are encouraged to express their views, examine issues from multiple perspectives, and make ethical judgments about historical topics is a strong predictor for youth knowledge of and engagement in social and political issues (Torney-Purta & Amadeo, 2012).
Benefits of such pedagogical approaches include increased student engagement and confidence in their ability to discuss complex issues, improved capacity to engage in civil discourse and the ability to see “disagreements as a normal part of democratic life (Hess & McAvoy, 2014, p. 54)
RARE to find this happening in most classrooms

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How might a historical thinking pedagogy contribute to the development of citizenship competencies?

Drawing on Westheimer & Kahne’s influential framework of personally responsible, participatory, and justice-oriented citizenship, I will explore possible connections between types of history teaching and three different kinds of citizens

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Westheimer & Kahne (2004)

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Personally responsible citizen: role is to “have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community” (p. 2).

Aspect of Historical Thinking	What this looks like in a “Traditional” approach to teaching history
Historical Significance	Historically significant people and events are pre-determined by curriculum writers and are not up for debate or evaluation.
Evidence	Heavy reliance on textbook entries. Students rarely engage with primary sources and if they do, it’s in the purpose of a predetermined outcome.
Continuity and Change	Identification of key turning points from the dominant society’s perspective. Contributes to nation-building.
Cause and Consequence	Identification of causes and consequences of events integral to nation building, told from the dominant society’s perspective.
Historical Perspective-Taking	Stories of “heroes” are told from the heroes’ perspective. No attempt to understand historical context or social values of the time that help students understand historical actor’s actions.
Ethical dimension	Ethical judgments are hidden, implicit and authoritative. Students are told what values were good, which ones were not, and they were told historical narratives that reinforced those beliefs and values.

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Participatory citizen: “must actively participate and take leadership positions within established systems and community structures” (p. 2).

Aspect of Historical Thinking	What this looks like in a “Historical Thinking” approach to teaching history
Historical Significance	Students are taught criteria for assessing historical significance and apply them to curricular topics.
Evidence	Students taught how to analyze primary sources in the context of a specific historical problem or inquiry.
Continuity and Change	Study the historical development of current systems and structures.
Cause and Consequence	Identification of causes and consequences of events that led to current context.
Historical Perspective-Taking	Students learn about a range of historical actors who effected change in the past. May include some “iconic” examples from minoritzed groups – these are held up as heroes or exceptions to the dominant norm.
Ethical dimension	Ethical judgments may be more explicit. Students are invited to consider the implications of major historical “wrongs”, with lessons drawn for the present day.

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Justice-oriented citizen: “must question and change established systems and structures when they reproduce patterns of injustice over time” (p. 2).

Aspect of Historical Thinking	What this looks like in a “Critical Historical Thinking” approach to teaching history
Historical Significance	Students are taught criteria for assessing historical significance and apply them to curricular topics and beyond. Challenge the assumed significance of curricular topics, and investigate claims of significance from multiple perspectives.
Evidence	Students taught how to analyze primary sources in the context of a specific historical problem or inquiry, and include a wide range of sources including oral histories. Regularly question evidentiary claims and examine evidence for missing voices.
Continuity and Change	Study the historical development of current systems and structures in order to examine them for power dimensions and exclusions.
Cause and Consequence	Identification of causes and consequences of events that lead to current context as well as analysis of the effects on the stratification of society.
Historical Perspective-Taking	Students learn about a broad range of historical actors from diverse social groups to understand the motivations for their actions as well as the societal structures that enabled or constrained them.
Ethical dimension	Ethical judgments are explicit. Students consider the ethical obligations of present-day citizens for wrongs committed by citizens of the past, and may suggest the need for reparations.

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"Beyond the lurid headlines and hand-wringing lies a more basic question:

What does the teaching of history contribute to a democratic society?”

- Wineburg, 2001

1943!

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