Week Two
Random thoughts...
1) Hailden (1994) regarding the historic eras of Sweden after the Renaissance are indicative of a wider problem about labels in history. A good example in English history is Early Modern, which is supposed to designate the period after the Tudors in 16th century England beginning with James of Scotland but in reality greatly confuses students, who assume it to be much later in the time line given the modern definition of "modern" as post World War II.
2) Barton, Lee and Ashby (2001) have given us a remarkable study from which to learn from as history teachers. We need to be much more aware of the process of change in history and not present it as a logically linear progression of events simply because we can connect the dots between certain political actions and their consequences in retrospect. As historians, we need to be much more aware of the political and social contexts that impacted many of the great events of policy and realize that they weren't made simply for political and economic gain as much as they were sometimes the whims of opportunistic politicians, leaders and military commanders looking to make a name for themselves (look at Caesar's campaigns in Gaul, Constantine's military expansion from Trier in the early fourth century BCE, or the presidency of Andrew Johnson and his own personal insecurities leading to a large number of pardons of plantation owners and a restoration of many of their properties in the two years after the end of the American Civil War). It's important that children not see time and change simply through a linear and too logical a progression, thereby removing the influence of religion, pragmatism and the human elements in telling much more complex stories.
3) Empathy is remarkably important in understanding history and contextualizing it beyond the modern circumstances from which the historian is limited to. I've found that studying abroad for extended periods of time, second language acquisition and/or students who have experienced schooling in a diverse range of economic backgrounds (working-class and suburban upper-middle class in particular) generally lead to a greater likelihood of them being able to conceptualize people and lives beyond their context. Language learning abroad in an immersion environment especially forces students to perceive of themselves as an outsider and thus develop a much more wide-ranging conceptualization of citizenship and belonging that can open the doors a bit easier to them understanding the "other" in historic contexts and being much more aware of the multiple stories and experiences within cultures and thus less likely to believe one account of a primary document without at least first checking and researching for a wider range of accounts.
4) The article does a fantastic job of laying out the basic arguments for why historical thinking is essential to a truly nuanced understanding of history. It does a great job of not only laying out a theoretical framework, but inserting excellent classroom examples using qualitative research, to give the reader a real grasp of how the concepts are applicable to the theories in a practical sense.
1) Hailden (1994) regarding the historic eras of Sweden after the Renaissance are indicative of a wider problem about labels in history. A good example in English history is Early Modern, which is supposed to designate the period after the Tudors in 16th century England beginning with James of Scotland but in reality greatly confuses students, who assume it to be much later in the time line given the modern definition of "modern" as post World War II.
2) Barton, Lee and Ashby (2001) have given us a remarkable study from which to learn from as history teachers. We need to be much more aware of the process of change in history and not present it as a logically linear progression of events simply because we can connect the dots between certain political actions and their consequences in retrospect. As historians, we need to be much more aware of the political and social contexts that impacted many of the great events of policy and realize that they weren't made simply for political and economic gain as much as they were sometimes the whims of opportunistic politicians, leaders and military commanders looking to make a name for themselves (look at Caesar's campaigns in Gaul, Constantine's military expansion from Trier in the early fourth century BCE, or the presidency of Andrew Johnson and his own personal insecurities leading to a large number of pardons of plantation owners and a restoration of many of their properties in the two years after the end of the American Civil War). It's important that children not see time and change simply through a linear and too logical a progression, thereby removing the influence of religion, pragmatism and the human elements in telling much more complex stories.
3) Empathy is remarkably important in understanding history and contextualizing it beyond the modern circumstances from which the historian is limited to. I've found that studying abroad for extended periods of time, second language acquisition and/or students who have experienced schooling in a diverse range of economic backgrounds (working-class and suburban upper-middle class in particular) generally lead to a greater likelihood of them being able to conceptualize people and lives beyond their context. Language learning abroad in an immersion environment especially forces students to perceive of themselves as an outsider and thus develop a much more wide-ranging conceptualization of citizenship and belonging that can open the doors a bit easier to them understanding the "other" in historic contexts and being much more aware of the multiple stories and experiences within cultures and thus less likely to believe one account of a primary document without at least first checking and researching for a wider range of accounts.
4) The article does a fantastic job of laying out the basic arguments for why historical thinking is essential to a truly nuanced understanding of history. It does a great job of not only laying out a theoretical framework, but inserting excellent classroom examples using qualitative research, to give the reader a real grasp of how the concepts are applicable to the theories in a practical sense.
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