Journal of Curriculum Studies 48卷4期

1. Translation and its discontents: key concepts in English and German history education.

Author: Seixas, Peter.

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies (Aug. 2016): 427-439.

Abstract:

Key terms and concepts are crucial tools in teaching and learning in the disciplines. Different linguistic traditions approach such tools in diverse ways. This paper offers an initial contribution by a monolingual Anglophone history educator in dialogue with German history educators. It presents three different scenarios for the potential of translation between German and Anglophone research communities. In the case of Geschichtsbewußtsein or ‘historical consciousness’, the Anglophone field has already been enriched by the introduction of a new concept over the past decade. In the case of the fundamental group of concepts – ‘source’, ‘evidence’, ‘trace’ and ‘account’ – the Anglophone field is shown to be in surprising disarray, but clarification is within reach. German history education researchers may have a similar need; if so, perhaps they can benefit from the English language discussion. In the third case, that of Triftigkeit or ‘plausibility’, the German field is poised, again to make a significant contribution to a gaping hole in the theory, research and practice of Anglophone history education.

2. Translation and its discontents II: a German perspective.

Author: Andreas Körber.

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies (Aug. 2016): 440-456.

Abstract:

International cooperation in history teaching and related teacher education requires clarification of terminology as well as of underlying concepts and theoretical foundations, since these levels are fundamentally intertwining. If these levels are addressed, both comparison and translation do not only make cooperation possible, but promise valuable contributions to the clarification of such concepts on either side. Being the German counterpart to the viewpoint of Peter Seixas, this article both corroborates and adds to his reflections. Three complexes of theory and terminology are addressed: ‘Geschichtsbewusstsein’ (‘historical consciousness’) with special regard to the concept of ‘Sinnbildung’ in Jörn Rüsen’s theory, the German focus on the concepts of source (‘Quelle’) compared to the Anglosaxon concept of ‘evidence’ and the challenges posed by translating Jörn Rüsen’s concept of ‘Triftigkeiten’ (plausibility) as a criterion for assessing the quality of historical statements.

3. Does students’ heritage matter in their performance on and perceptions of historical reasoning tasks?

Author: Anne-Lise Halvorsen, Lauren McArthur Harris, Gerardo Aponte Martinez & Amanda Slaten Frasier

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies (Aug. 2016): 457-478.

Abstract:

This mixed methods study explores how high school students (N = 35) enrolled in a US charter school with a high Latino/a population perform on and perceive (in terms of interest and relevance) document-based type historical reasoning tasks: one about the Dust Bowl in the 1930s and the other about the experiences of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the 1920s. Students wrote essay responses and completed perception inventories about the tasks. We also interviewed 10 focal students to delve more deeply into students’ thinking regarding the tasks and their interest levels in the two topics. We scored students’ responses along the criteria of historical claims, substantiation of claims, use of evidence from documents, sourcing of documents and contextualization. Our hypotheses were that students would perform better on, and be more interested in, tasks that were culturally relevant to them. We found that although students did not perform differently on the two tasks overall, students’ perceptions of the tasks differed, with a significantly greater interest in the task about Mexicans and Mexican Americans. We address the complexity of these findings and discuss implications for curriculum and practise.

4. Making history relevant to students by connecting past, present and future: a framework for research

Author: Dick Van Straaten, Arie Wilschut & Ron Oostdam

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies (Aug. 2016): 479-502.

Abstract:

History teaching usually focuses on understanding the past as an aim in itself. Research shows that many students don’t see the point of this and perceive history as not very useful. Yet history plays a major role in the orientation on present and future. If students fail to see this, the question arises whether this is due to a lack of explicit attention in history classes on the application of knowledge about the past to the present and the future. This article explores two questions: (1) If history is to be more relevant to students, what kind of objectives should play a central role in history teaching? (2) What kinds of teaching strategies align with these objectives in history teaching? The first question is answered by means of historical and educational theory. The second is answered by exploring a number of teaching strategies that have been described in the literature, as well as a small-scale experiment conducted by the authors. This article aims at providing a basis for developing meaningful history curricula as well as for research into educational strategies which can be deployed to teach students how to make connections between past, present and future.

5. At the interface: academic history, school history and the philosophy of history

Author: Tyson Retz

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies (Aug. 2016): 503-517.

Abstract:

How history is learnt and taught must to some extent be shaped by conceptions of what history is. Historians tend to conceptualize what something is by investigating what it has been and what it has meant in different contexts. This article explains how a debate in the philosophy of history between positivism and intentionalism provided the context for history to be defined as a distinct school subject. It traces the epistemological underpinnings of history pedagogy over the past century, illuminating the close relationship between attempts in the philosophy of history to defend history’s disciplinary autonomy and the formulation of a disciplinary model of school history education. Eschewing a one-way account from the philosophy of history to the school history classroom, it attributes the interest of leading history educationalists to use philosophical analyses of history to an educational paradigm eager to distil the disciplinary essence of the school subjects. At the interface of academic history, school history and the philosophy of history, it describes a process whereby these separate threads became part of a common fabric, shaping conceptions of what it means and what it takes to be educated in history.

6. English history teachers’ views on what substantive content young people should be taught

Author: Richard Harris & Katharine Burn

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies (Aug. 2016): 518-546.

Abstract:

Public and policy discourse about the content of history curricula is frequently contested, but the voice of history teachers is often absent from such debate. Drawing on a large-scale online survey of history teachers in England, this paper explores their responses to major curriculum reforms proposed by the Coalition government in February 2013. In particular, it examines teachers’ responses to government plans to prescribe a list of topics, events and individuals to be taught chronologically that all students would be expected to study. Nearly 550 teachers responded to the survey, and more than two-thirds of them provided additional written comments on the curriculum proposals. This paper examines these comments, with reference to a range of curriculum models. The study reveals a deep antagonism towards the proposals for various reasons, including concerns about the extent and nature of the substantive content proposed and the way in which it should be sequenced. Analysis of these reactions provides an illuminating insight into history teachers’ perspectives. Whilst the rationales that underpin their thinking seem to have connections to a variety of different theoretical models, the analysis suggests that more attention could usefully be devoted to the idea of developing frameworks of reference.

7. The changing landscape of literacy curriculum in a Sino-Canada transnational education programme: an actor-network theory informed case study

Author: Zheng Zhang & Rachel Heydon

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies (Aug. 2016): 547-564.

Abstract:

This paper concerns an exploratory and interpretive case study of the literacy curricula in a Canadian transnational education programme (Pseudonym: SCS) delivered in China where Ontario secondary school curricula were used at the same time as the Chinese national high school curricula. Using ethnographic tools and actor-network theory, the study sought to understand and conceptualize the constituents, movements, and effects of the institutional, programmatic and classroom literacy curricula in the programme. The study found that many actors were responsible for the various and interrelated forms of literacy curricula from institutional to classroom. Actors included neoliberalism, educational entrepreneurs, and a philosophy of connecting the East and the West which in particular affected the institutional curriculum. Major findings concern the instability of this novel form of transnational curriculum-making when it was translated into programmatic and classroom curricula. Throughout our descriptions of these actors and translations, we highlight how the changing commitments and interests that mobilized SCS’s literacy curricula eventually enabled and constrained certain forms of literacy and identity options for SCS students. We also address the possibilities illuminated by the network movements of cross-border curricula.