Professional practice and perspectives in the teaching of historical empathy
To empathise, in a historical sense, generally means to entertain the perspectives and values of people in the past through consideration of the circumstances they faced. Widely acknowledged as a fundamental part of the historian's craft, empathy has had a more tenuous place in school history due to the conceptual confusion of the term, its association with the promotion of a leftist political agenda, and its difficulty for pupils. Scholarship on empathy has focused upon its philosophical meaning and students' thought processes, but has largely neglected to explore teachers' knowledge and practice about how to cultivate it. Instead, it has tended to offer norms for good practice that take little account of differing contexts or the sometimes competing goals that teachers seek to achieve. It has been guided as well by a particular image of empathy teaching as dedicated exercises, often involving immersion in many historical sources. My study begins to address the lack of attention to teachers' actual ideas and practices for fostering empathy by presenting a case study of four experienced history educators in England. Through extensive analysis of lesson and interview transcripts, I derive a new framework for
Cunningham, Deborah Lynn
History ; Methodology ; Study and teaching
Professional practice and perspectives in the teaching of historical empathy. To empathise, in a historical sense, generally means to entertain the perspectives and values of people in the past through consideration of the circumstances they faced. Widely acknowledged as a fundamental part of the historian's craft, empathy has had a more tenuous place in school history due to the conceptual confusion of the term, its association with the promotion of a leftist political agenda, and its difficulty for pupils. Scholarship on empathy has focused upon its philosophical meaning and students' thought processes, but has largely neglected to explore teachers' knowledge and practice about how to cultivate it. Instead, it has tended to offer norms for good practice that take little account of differing contexts or the sometimes competing goals that teachers seek to achieve. It has been guided as well by a particular image of empathy teaching as dedicated exercises, often involving immersion in many historical sources. My study begins to address the lack of attention to teachers' actual ideas and practices for fostering empathy by presenting a case study of four experienced history educators in England. Through extensive analysis of lesson and interview transcripts, I derive a new framework for
professional_practice perspective teach historical empathy historical sense generally mean entertain perspective value people_past consideration circumstance face widely_acknowledge fundamental part historian craft empathy tenuous place school_history due conceptual confusion term association promotion political_agenda difficulty pupil scholarship empathy focus_upon philosophical meaning student thought process largely_neglect explore teacher knowledge practice cultivate instead tend offer norm good practice take little account differ context sometimes compete goal teacher seek_achieve guide well particular image empathy teaching dedicate exercise often involve immersion many historical_source study begin_address lack attention teacher actual idea practice foster empathy present case_study experienced history educator england extensive_analysis lesson interview transcript derive new framework