A Paradigmatic Speculation on Doing History with a Future in Mind
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29393/RH31-7PSKH10007Keywords:
history education, curriculum studies, curriculum theory, futures thinking, paradigmsAbstract
Reading history education through curriculum theory, I explore competing paradigmatic logics undergirding history programs and teachers’ pedagogical choices. Compared to a ‘standardized management’ and ‘constructivist best practices’ paradigm, I draw from my scholarly journey to argue that a ‘curriculum wisdom’ orientation best honors democratic complexities, the nature of doing history, and a hope for public education as an ethical exploration towards a more preferable social future, however defined. In making this case, I explore futures thinking in the form of scenarios in which teachers and students use historical knowledge as warrants for distinguishing between the possible, probable, and preferable futures of those local-global issues deemed of personal-social import. As a conclusion, I ask, in what ways might we envision the potential of something more educative then merely transmitting a nation-state’s single story of origins and change over time or appeals to shifty notions of objective history from one presumed to know to one presumed to be lacking?.
Downloads
References
Alberta Education, Social Studies Kindergarten to Grade 12. Program of study. Edmonton, Alta: Alberta Education, 2005.
Badiou, Alain, Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil Trans. Peter Hallward. London: Verso, 2001.
Biesta, Gert and Säfström, Carl. «A Manifesto for Education». Policy Futures in Education 9, no 5 (2011): 540-547.
Carr, Edward. What is History?. London, Penguin Books, 2018.
Cronon, William. «A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative». Journal of American History 78, nº 4 (1992): 1347–1376.
den Heyer, Kent. «An Analysis of Aims and the Educational Event». Canadian Journal of Education 38, nº 1 (2015): 1-22.
den Heyer, Kent. «History Education as a Disciplinary Ethic of Truths». In New Possibilities for the past: Shaping history education in Canada, edited by Penney Clark, 154–172 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011).
den Heyer, Kent and Conrad, Dianne. «Using Alain Badiou’s Ethic of Truths to Support an ‘Eventful’ Social Justice Teacher Education Program». Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 27, nº 11 (2011): 7-19.
den Heyer, Kent and Abbott, Laurence. «Reverberating Echoes: Challenging Teacher Candidates to Tell and Learn from Entwined Narrations of Canadian history». Curriculum Inquiry 41, nº 5 (2011): 610- 635.
den Heyer,Kent. «Implicated and Called Upon: Challenging an Educated Position of Self, Others, Knowledge and Knowing as Things to Acquire». Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices 3, nº 1 (2009): 26-36.
Denos, Michael and Case, Roland. Teaching About Historical Thinking. Vancouver: Critical Thinking Consortium, 2006.
Gardner, Howard. The Disciplined Mind: What All Students Should Understand. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.
Harding, Sandra. «Strong Objectivity: A Response to the New Objectivity Question». Synthese, 104 (1995): 331–349.
Henderson, James and Gornik, Rosemary. Transformative Curriculum Leadership. New York: Prentice Hall, 2007.
Henderson, James and Kesson, Kathleen. Curriculum Wisdom: Educational Decisions in Democratic Societies. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2004.
Illich, Ivan. «Part Moon, Part Traveling Salesman: Conversations with Ivan Illich», Transcript from Ideas. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, November 21 and 28, and December 5 and 12–19, 1989.
Kuhn, Thomas. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
Lee, Peter. «History teaching and the philosophy of history». History and Theory 22, nº 4 (1983): 19–49.
Letourneau, Jocelyn. «Remembering our Past: An Examination of the Historical memory of Young Quebecois to the Past: History Education». In Public Memory, and Citizenship in Canada, edited by Ruth Sandwell, 74. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
Namier, Lewis B. Conflicts: Studies in Contemporary History. London: Macmillian& Co Ltd, 1942.
North Whitehead, Alfred. The Aims of Education and Other Essays. New York, New American Library, 1929.
Osborne, Ken. «Fred Morrow Fling and the Source-Method of Teaching History». Theory and Research in Social Education 31, nº 4 (2003): 466-501.
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York, Vintage Press, 1993.
Schick, Carol and St. Denis, Verna. «Troubling National Discourses in Anti-Racist Curricular Planning». Canadian Journal of Education 28, nº 3 (2005): 295-317.
Seixas, Peter. «Schweigen! Die Kinder! Or, Does Postmodern History Have a Place in the Schools». In Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History. Edited by Peter Stearns, Peter Seixas, & Sam Wineburg, 24. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
Seixas, Peter. «The Purposes of Teaching Canadian History». Canadian Social Studies 36, nº 2 (2002): n.p. https://canadian-social-studies-journal.educ.ualberta.ca/content/articles-2000-2010, accessed February 15, 2023.
Seixas, Peter and Morton, Tom. The Big 6 Historical Thinking Concepts. Toronto: Nelsen, 2012.
Sellar, Sam, Thompson Greg and Rutkowski, David. The Global Education Race: Taking the Measure of PISA and International Testing. Edmonton: Brush Education Inc. 2017.
Shemilt, Dennis. History 13–16 evaluation study. Edinburgh: Holmes McDougall, 1980.
Southgate, Beverly. « ‘A Pair of White gloves’: Historians and Ethics». Rethinking History 10, nº 1 (2006): 49-61.
Staley, David. «A History of the Future». History and Theory, Theme Issue 41(2002):72-89.
Staley, David. History and Future: Using Historical Thinking to Imagine the Future Lanham. MD: Lexington Books, 2007.
Stanley, Timothy. «Whose Public? Whose Memory? Racisms, Grand Narratives and Canadian History». In To the Past: History Education, Public Memory, and Citizenship in Canada. Edited by Ruth Sandwell, 32-49. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the Past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.
Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2005.
Willinsky, John. Learning to Divide the World: Education at Empire’s End. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
