The British, the tank, and that Czech: How teachers talk about people in history lessons

Michal Honig, Dan Porat*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this article, we examined how high school teachers talked about people in history lessons and how they engaged in or shunned multiperspectivity aspects as they talked about people who lived in the past. Based on an analysis of 40 hours of observations of 5 different classes in 3 Jewish high schools in Israel according to the constructive-interpretive method, we found that in most of the lessons observed, few references were made to specific individuals. At the same time, many teachers talked about people in history by referring to generic people, to general categories of people, or by using personification. Using examples, we discuss the educational significance of the different ways history teachers talk about people in history through the prism of multiperspectivity as an aim in history education. We conclude that discussing the connections between the practice of talking about people in history lessons and multiperspectivity may contribute to teachers’ awareness of another way they can promote multiperspectivity in class.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)526-547
Number of pages22
JournalTheory and Research in Social Education
Volume47
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Oct 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 College and University Faculty Assembly of National Council for the Social Studies.

Keywords

  • History learning
  • history teaching
  • multiperspectivity
  • people in history

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