Teaching and Learning Historical Explanation: Teacher and Student Cases from Lower and Upper Secondary History

Teaching and Learning Historical Explanation: Teacher and Student Cases from Lower and Upper Secondary History

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyse how teachers and students understand the concept of historical explanation in the context of classroom teaching practices. The thesis is made up of four studies that investigate different aspects of understanding, focusing on either teacher or student understanding as expressed in words and actions. The different studies employ differing methods, including classroom observations, interviews with teachers, and analysis of student answers to prompts intended for assessment. The studies include cases from both lower and upper secondary school in Sweden. The four studies provide empirical results that are presented in each individual study, and furthermore subjected to an aggregated analysis in order to find patterns of commonality. The aggregated analysis draws upon Rüsen’s theory of historical knowledge, as well as a progression model for historical explanation based on results from previous research. The results of the study show a clear difference between lower and upper secondary school in how students at each stage construct historical explanations, indicating differing expectations of what students are supposed to do with explanations in each stage. Teachers’ practices are more varied: while a majority of the included teachers manifest a disciplinary understanding of historical explanation, in line with previous research about historical explanation in educational contexts, other approaches with other emphases are also present. These include an emphasis of learning explanations as sets of facts, as well as approaches that aim for making the knowledge of historical explanation useful outside of the history subject. Examples of such aims found in the study are to enhance empathetic understanding of other people, and helping students to orient themselves in relation to present-day issues.Historical explanation is a fundamental component of historical accounts. Learning how to construct and analyse such explanations is therefore an important aspect of the process of teaching and learning history. This thesis investigates how teachers and students in Sweden handle this aspect in the context of education and assessment. The thesis consists of four different studies that alternate the focus on either students or teachers, in lower or upper secondary school. Teachers are investigated mainly through classroom observations, students mainly through analyses of written answers. The study analyses common patterns among teachers and students, finding that student answers to a high degree conform to the knowledge requirements of the course they are studying. Teachers present a wider and more varied understanding of historical explanation that goes beyond what is captured in the knowledge requirements, indicating the potential for explanations to develop empathy, and for helping students to orient themselves in relation to present-day issues.