Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
OF
HISTORY
BHUVANGARG
RAJAT PUBLICATIONS
NEW DELm - 110 002 (INDIA)
RAJAT PUBLICATIONS
4675/21, Ansari Road, Daryaganj
New De!hi - 110002 (India)
Phones: 23267924, 22507277
Email: rajat-publication@yahoo.com
Teaching ofHistory
© Reserved
First Edition 2007
ISBN 978-81-7880-309-8
PRINTED IN INDIA
Published by Mrs. Seema Wasan for Rajat Publications, New Delhi and
Printed at H.S. Offset, Delhi.
Contents
Key Questions
Reading Books
Reading books is very different from reading documents.
Books are more diffuse, and carry many different forms
of information and evidence. Good books provide rich
sources of knowledge about any given historical period.
To help children use books well, we suggest the following
approaches.
Reading Documents
Historical documents are a boon to teachers. They offer
the full range of types and genres of writing, from letters
and diaries to official speeches and reports, from narrative
accounts to poetry of every kind, from instructions to
persuasive arguments and advertisements. As such, they
make excellent shared texts for literacy teaching,
introducing children to new ideas, vocabulary and forms
of language. Crucially, if tied in with the teaching of a
history topic, historical documents provide a context that
enhances the learning of literacy.
The hi~torical context connects the children with the
6 Teaching of History
Text Breaker
We have devised a textbreaker structure to help children
make sens.e of difficult and challenging texts. What does
textbreaker do?
scaffolds the children's learning.
helps with comprehension and deconstruction of the
text.
enables exploration of the layers of meaning in the
text.
Textbreaker can take several forms, from the simple to the
complicated, and includes at least some of layers A? in
the list below.
concrete nouns.
abstract nouns.
adjectives.
verbs.
adverbs.
8 Teaching of History
pronouns, etc.
Ideas
main ideas.
sequence of ideas.
hierarchy of ideas.
Chidren Writing
How can we help children to write well, to do justice to
their abilities through the written word?
The first step is to use verbal approaches to enable
children to clarify concepts, explore appropriate
vocabulary, and think about the form or genre in which
they will write - here good examples to analyse are crucial.
This will involve much raising of questions, discussion and
Teaching Primary History 9
Writing Frames
A writing frame provides a skeleton outline, a template,
of key words and phrases (starters, connectives, sentence
modifiers) to give children a structure within which they
can communicate what they want to say in an appropriate
form. Devise your own writing frames to suit your
purpose. Here are some examples Writing frames from
David Wray,
Effective Writing
Pictorial Note-taking
Objects
As survivals from history, objects offer us an unrivalled
way of touching past lives. Objects as humble as coins or
old bottles can yield rich information and learning. They
carry with them messages about the people who made,
owned and used them, and about the places they came
from and passed through.
Physical Maps
Plans
Making of Maps
As well as using plans, children can also create them, that
is from pictures or written descriptions.
Local Maps
Local record offices will have detailed Ordnance Survey
maps for your area, going back over 150 years. You can
usually obtain copies for a small fee. Alternatively, use
the internet. If, for example, you type:
"victorian+ordnance+survey+maps" into Google or a
similar search engine, you will bring up pages of links to
historical maps. Just five maps of your area spread over
100 years will make the basis of some excellent work. The
children can spot when buildings disappear, or change
their use or name, and when new buildings appear.
Similarly, place name investigations give us valuable
insights into the nature and pattern of settlement by the
Roman, Saxon, Viking and Norman invaders of Britain.
Investigating the origins of place names on our modern
maps is both fun and enlightening.
Story-telling
Create Stories
Teacher in role.
Hot-seating.
Making maps or plans.
Still image.
Overheard conversations.
Forum theatre.
Counsellors giving advice
Meetings.
Preparation
The Visit
Tasks
Obse'Y0tion
Tools
History Investigations
These computer-based investigations offer a vehicle for the
purposeful use of ICT in history. They are like textual
jigsaws, with each piece of the jigsaw being a discrete text
file (pictures can also be included).
Cast in the role of history detectives, children drive
each investigation, following up clues in their search for
explanations. In their progress through the history
mysteries, the pupils develop a range of investigative skills
of the historian, as they put forward hypotheses, argue
points with one another, use logical deduction, assess
evidence, and draw conclusions. Pupils are in control of
their own learning in an open-ended, challenging and
motivating context.
Through pursuing history investigations, children
gain an insight into the processes of planning and
executing an historical investigation. Once they understand
how each textual jigsaw is put together they, and their
teachers, can create their own history mysteries. The need
to create a working, logically-linked investigation vastly
extends each pupil's awareness of evidence, causation and
motivation and how they interconnect.
2
History Teaching in
Secondary Schools
Collaborative Efforts
There are an increasing number of collaborative efforts to
enhance history learning in all parts of the country. Just
how a collaborative effort becomes successful is a complex
problem, but there are plenty of examples of projects that
have found solutions to it. They basically provide diverse
professional groups strong common links by which to
work together, thus strengthening the place of history in
the schools and in colleges and universities collectively.
The movement of college-school partnerships goes back
to National History Day of the 1970s and the History
Teaching Alliance of the 1980s; the National History
Education Network (NHEN) in the 1990s was sponsored
by the AHA, the Organisation of American Historians
(OAH), and the National Council for the Social Studies
(NCSS).
History Teaching in Secondary Schools 41
Off-Site Study
Resources outside the classroom are underused at all levels
of teaching history. Every community has something
within its boundaries that reflects a time in our past and
in many cases communities support local museums or
historical societies. If there is a partnership with a local
college or university, historians and their students can
work with secondary students to research, analyse, and
write from documentary, photographic, or oral sources. In
so doing, students can build a relationship with their own
community and its people in ways a text, a lecture, or a
computer can not provide.
Teaching Tips
In older cities in particular, many of the buildings that
remain are those of wealthier individuals who used to live
in the community. It is easy to assume from that physical
evidence that everyone lived the way that the individuals
who peopled those houses did. Likely, very few did. When
presented with a historic neighborhood or building, it is
essential to ask the students to figure out what else would
have existed. Have all the buildings of workers been torn
down? What have they been replaced with? Why do those
buildings that exist still remain?
Basic Questions
What makes a neighborhood? Define the
neighborhood you are studying: its boundaries,
location on a map, numbers of houses, streets.
What is typical about this neighborhood? Unusual?
What are the types of land use in your neighborhood?
Residential Houses? Business/Stores? Industry? Open
Space?
How do neighbours travel to work? What kinds of
transportation are available?
What is the oldest house date? Are any houses on the
National Register? Newest?
What is the origin of neighborhood street names?
(How would you find out? Town or city hall?
Neighbours? Library research?
What role has this neighborhood played in the larger
community?
What issues are of concern to thE. neighborhood now?
Teaching Tools for Local History 49
CEMETERIES
Teaching Tips
Provide information on the Cemetery you will visit with
students: its location, who owns it, runs it, role in
community. Check it out ahead of time so that you are
comfortable leading the trip and your activities are
relevant. If you use the sheets on gravestone symbols the
students' will locate, be sure there are good examples to
find. If you are dividing up the cemetery in sections so
that detailed work can be done on a specific area, find
similar-sized areas that allow comparisons. Modify the
templates to the specifications of your cemetery.
Gravestone Rubbing
For many years, students and enthusiasts of gravestone
art have taken "rubbings" of favourite stones. While this
seems like an easy project to do with students, it is, in
fact, quite controversial.. Repeated rubbings degrade the
stones and can cause damage if done improperly. The
following is an excerpt from the Association for
Gravestone Studies' guide on the Dos and Don'ts of
Gravestone Rubbings:
Please Do
Check (with cemetery superintendent, cemetery
commissioners, town clerk, historical society, whoever
Teaching Tools for Local History 51
Basic Questions
What is the name of this cemetery? In what
community is it located?
Locate the cemetery on town map. Describe its
location, size and immediate neighbours. Why do you.
think this site was selected? What does the location
of the cemetery tell you about the relationship between
life and death in the community?
Teaching Tools for Local History 53
CENSUS RECORDS
Teaching Tips
Because they are "tabular data", census records can be
typed into a spreadsheet or database programme and then
56 Teaching of History
Basic Questions
What year was this census taken?
Where was this census taken (Street(s), Enumeration
District, Town, County, State)
What is the identification or page number of this
census sheet? Does there seem to be more than one
page numbering system in place?
What is the name of the person who wrote down the
census information (canvasser)?
How many family groups are listed on this sheet?
How can you tell?
Who is the oldest person on the sheet?
Who is the youngest person on the sheet?
DOCUMENTS
Teaching Tips
Because of preservation concerns, there are often
58 Teaching of History
Basic Questions
Is this document a primary or secondary source? How
do you know?
Who wrote this document and why?
What do you know about this author/creator?
When was it written? If no date is listed, what clues
are there that could help date it?
Where was it written and where is the document now
found? (owner, repository)
What is the document about? (title/subject)
Teaching Tools for Local History 59
VISUAL IMAGES
Teaching Tips
Paper-based ("low tech") images and digital images can
both be used effectively in the classroom. Original or paper
images have the advantage of immediacy, while digital
images can be printed, enlarged, projected and annotated.
In addition, images can be saved to disk, then copied into
folders and saved on classroom computers or onto school
websites.
Basic Questions
When was this image created?
What is the image type or format (drawing, cartoon,
painting, photograph)
Is this a primary or a secondary source? How can you
tell?
When was this image created? If there is no obvious
date, what clues can help you date the image?
Where is the original image stored?
Teaching Tools for Local History 61
MAPS
Teaching Tips
In general, try to select maps which are not too
complicated, or 'noisy' for students to comfortably explore.
Experiment with map websites and CD-ROMs before
students use them to be sure you are familiar with
navigating, zooming in and out, saving and printing maps.
Some map sites require special browser plugins, for
instance the "MrSid" plugin for Library of Congress maps,
to make best use of their maps.
Most maps have a title, which often includes
informatior. about the time period that the map illustrates.
Maps have orientation, which includes compass direction
and geographic relationships within an established area.
Maps have a source, or author, which often gives insight
about its intended purpose and reason for creation. Maps
may have a legend explaining the symbols used and a
scale showing how distance is represented. Many maps
use grids to show lines of latitude and longitude.
Teaching Tools Jor Local History 63
Types of Maps:
Political maps represent the political units of the
world, showing names of localities and boundary
lines.
Physical maps use shaded or painted relief to illustrate
a region's major landforms, including mountain
ranges, deserts, glaciers, rivers, valleys, etc.
Topographic maps are general reference maps showing
coastlines, cities, and rivers that use contour lines to
show elevation differences. Such maps are helpful to
hikers because they can show elevation changes along
a trail.
Atlas maps can show anything about anywhere. An
atlas can contain collections of political, physical,
satellite, and thematic maps. Countries, states, towns
have produced atlases that describe all aspects of that
locality.
Historical maps can be maps created in the past,
reproductions of past maps, or modem-day creations
illustrating past events or places.
Basic Questions
What is the title/subject of this map?
Who was the cartographer (creator)? What do you
know about this cartographer/creator?
When was it prepared? If no date is listed, what dues
are there that could help date the map?
Where was this map originally produced and where
is the map now found? (owner, repository)
What was the purpose of the map and its intended
audience?
64 Teaching of History
MATERIAL CULTURE
Teaching Tips
The use of objects as teaching tool is particularly profound
when trying to elicit non-linear responses or stories. For
example, when doing oral histories with grandparents,
students should ask their subjects to tell them about objects
that are on the piano or by their bedsides rather than
asking a straight list of "Where were you when ... "
questions. Objects bring up emotional responses and
memories easier than linear questions.
Additionally, when teaching in the history classroom,
objects have the power to tell tales and link students to
the history of other time periods. For example, if students
are studying several eras in history, consider linking them
together by telling the story of one type of item that across
time would be used daily (ex. Shoes, kitchen goods, etc.)
Watching how these items changed, including their use
and production, provides students with a concrete
representation of the abstract changes in society.
All of the information here is designed to help
teachers integrate some form of material culture into their
classroom, so there is no one set of questions that will
effectively cover all the possible angles that a teacher could
use with a particular object. Depending on the article you
choose, you may need to find questions in other templates
66 Teaching of History
Basic Questions
What is it?
What is it made of?
What is it used for?
Who would use it?
How would they use it? How do you know that?
What symbols or markings does it contain?
What does this tell you about the person/people who
used it?
What aspect of society does this relate to: work, home,
religion, etc.?
Teaching Tips
Some topics are better suited than others for newspaper
research. The best topics are those which can be connected
to specific events, while the least suitable topics are those
which show up not in events but in trends, long-term
developments, or social movements. Local political,
government and military issues, public works projects,
labour union strikes, natural disasters, eyewitness accounts
of landmark events, local personalities, advertisements
(including personal advertisements) are just some of the
topics that can be readily researched in local and regional
newspapers. In addition, political cartoons illustrating local
social and political issues can be good sources for
exploration and analysis. Commercial advertisements,
classified and personal ads, social pages and obituaries are
also fertile sources for local history research in newspapers.
As with any primary source, newspapers, broadsides
and cartoons invite students to hone their critical thinking
skills, to determine the objectivity and accuracy of a given
source. In the case of newspapers, partisanship, boosterism
and the possibility of heightened controversy for
circulation reasons must all be considered as factors that
influence the content and tone of the news.
68 Teaching of History
Basic Questions
What is the topic of the article or cartoon?
Who wrote it (author/creator/artist)? What do you
know about this author/creator? If the creator is
unknown, are there clues to help identify him or her?
How reliable is this article or cartoon for historical
accuracy?
What biases can writers, artists and other_s bring to
their work?
When was it created? If no date is listed, what clues
are there that could help date it?
Where was it written and where is the article or
cartoon now found?
Who was the intended audience?
TIMELINES
Teaching Tips
Basic Questions
What is the purpose of this timeline?
What is the basic unit of measurement for this timeline
- hour, day, month, year, century?
What local events were occurring during the period
represented by this timeline?
Teaching Tips
Make sure that the historic records you select to use are
readable and age appropriate for your class. Be sure the
record content is long enough to provide the information
you want your class to absorb, but not so long that it
overwhelms them. Select materials and activities that are
likely to motivate and inspire your students, that are
related to current events, anniversaries, their own interests
and hobbies.
Basic Questions
Is this document a primary or secondary source? How
do you know?
How reliable is this document for historical accuracy??
When was it written? If no date is listed, what clues
are there that could help date it?
Where was it written and where is the document now
found? (owner, repository)
What tools were used to write it and what is its
appearance? (handwritten with quill, pen, pencil?
Typewritten? Printed? A filled-in form?
72 Teaching of History
AN INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK
Globalisation of Education
In theory, online units of study promote information
exchange and mutual support amongst students and
enable skills to be updated and transferred to vocational
settings. In countries such as Australia, sympathetic
commentators on the viability of online learning say that
it addresses educational disadvantage by widening
educational opportunities to a broader and more diverse
Teaching World History 81
Genocide
Whether or not Jared Diamond's conclusions about the
causes of world inequality as presented in Guns, Germs,
and Steel are accepted, the course of modern world history
has everywhere involved the domination of the have-nots
by the haves, and often the outright immiseration of
indigenous populations by more powerful newcomers.
Because of its associated cultural genocide and species
depletion, extinction, and exchange, the rise of the West
entailed uses of political and economic power that differed
substantially from how these were deployed in either the
so-called simpler societies or the civilisations that were,
before 1500, at about equal levels of technological
development. After this date a New World environment
was in the making socially as well as geographically, as
the growth of the Atlantic economy created boundless
opportunities for self-made men "to rival the old landed
elites in wealth."
These forces are evident in even the earliest colonial
history of Connecticut, when treaties stipulating land
cession after both the Pequot War (1636-37) and King
Philip War (1675-76) removed the inconveniently located
Indians (estimated to have been fewer than 5000 in
number) outside the zone of English settlement, despite
-initially "friendly" encounters and the apparent desire of
the local Indians to have English settlers nearby as a buffer
aga~nst their Mohawk and Pequot foes. The first Dutch
98 Teaching of History
Slavery
After agriculture, shipbuilding was one of Connecticut's
largest industries in the lSth and 19th centuries. Shipyards
located in the ports of Mystic and London and at various
locations along the Connecticut River specialised in
making "cotton packets" of 700-1000 tons that sailed to
the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Norris Peck, a Berlin selectman,
farmer, and merchant with ties to Alabama cotton growers
and thus to African slaves and their African-American
descendants, was but one of the many Connecticut
investors in the cotton packet trade.
Other local merchants conducted business with
counterparts in North Carolina, including members of the
Wilcox family, who would later play a leading role in
turning the town of Meriden, next to Berlin, into a center
of "International Silver." Such ties were neither new nor
distasteful to early Puritan or later Congregationalist
minds, for West Indian cotton was available for spinning
by New Englanders as early as the 1640's. It is possible
that the first cotton thread to be made in America was
hand-loomed in a Berlin shop owned by one of Pattison's
sons.
Much later, in what is now called East Berlin,
Elishama Brandegee (whose father had sailed the seas and
brought back" a little negro boy from Guinea" ) established
a large spool cotton and thread ,mill that "gave
employment to forty girls" and is the 1fubject of a rustic
factory landscape painted by Charles Doratt in 1840. It,
102 Teaching of History
souls worth saving but because [their owners] did not like
to leave them at home."
Even after the American Civil War, fortunes were
made in the state on the backs of the countless African
slaves who carried ivory tusks to Zanzibar, from where
they were transported to factories on the Connecticut River
that turned them into piano keys, combs, and brush
handles. It might be added that without West Indian
molasses, spices, and rum, and the risks associated with
its importation, Hartford would not have become "The
Insurance Capital" of America. But those are other places
and other stories, and do not fit within the scope of this
article.
Civil Wars
As is well known, the British went to war twice against
China in the first half of the 19th century because of an
unfavorable balance of trade and the Qing Emperor's
refusal to allow Canton's merchants to continue
exchanging beneficial products (silk, tea, porcelain, human
labour) for harmful ones (opium and life as a "coolie" in
the Americas). Demand for silk was so great that attempts
were made during the late 18th and early 19th centuries to
replicate Chinese success in the American colonies.
Americans in large numbers started planting
mulberry. trees, breeding silkworms, and spooling the silk.
Ezra Stiles, president of nearby Yale College, was one
enthusiastic promoter of silk production, and among the
notable results of his efforts was the formation, in 1788 in
the town of Mansfield, of the first U.S. corporation devoted
to manufacturing. The 1820's and 1830's, in particular,
witnessed a sericulture "craze" that prompted dreams of
fast riches through home production throughout New
England.
Teachi1lg World History 105
Migration
Finally, evidence of more recent connections between the
near and the far may be seen up and down the Berlin
Turnpike, which prior to the completion of the federal
interstate highway system in the 1960's was part of the
main route connecting New York, Bridgeport, New Haven,
Middletown, Meriden and Hartford.
Decades of commercial decline along this highway
ended with the influx, since the late 1970's, of what is now
a significant bloc of local commercial property owners and
tax-payers. Families from western India's Gujarat state
(mainly the areas around Surat and Ahmedabad), with
centuries of experience in property ownership and cross-
cultural trade, are today the proprietors of motels, filling
stations, convenience stores, and "Gandhi Plazas" virtually
everywhere.
This demographic pattern has been replicated along
secondary roads throughout the United States. Elsewhere
throughout the area (and through much of New England)
small Chinese take-outs, owned and run by families from
Fujian Province, have become ubiquitous. In 2004, more
persons of Asian Pacific race/ethnicity re&ided in Berlin
than the total of Native Americans and African-Americans
combined, and these are mainly South Asian Hindus and
108 Teaching of History
Castle Story
The 'story' begins when the castle (together with
feudalism, the social organisation which supported it) was
introduced into England in 1066 during William the
Conqueror's invasion of England. In the Norman
settlement that followed the victory at Hastings, William
and his followers studded England with castles in order
to pacify a potentially rebellious population. These castles
136 Teaching of History
Historiographical Study
The origins of the castle story (at least in its modern ,form)
can be found in the late nineteenth century. At this time,
castles were studied almost exclusively as fortifications and
a new category of reference - 'Military Architecture' -
provided a structure within which they could be studied.
Castles were the medieval equivalent of the artillery forts
and bastions that had been built in Europe from the
sixteenth century and seventeenth centuries. The warlike
image of the castle also dovetailed well with then current
ideas about the nature of medieval European society. In
an age where life was nasty, brutish and short, the castle
was the lair of the robber baron.
In British historiography one of the first major studies
in castles and castle-building was G. T. Clark's Mediaeval
Military Architecture in England (1884-5). This work
comprised a detailed survey of sites in Britain and France
but an extended introduction charted castle development.
Clark saw castles primarily as military structures and his
interpretation of many individual buildings owed much
to his background in civil engineering. Clark's work was
highly inventive, but it was two books published in 1912
that would dominate castle studies for decades. The first
138 Teaching of History
Development of an Orthodoxy
The inter-war and immediate post-war periods saw the
Teaching Medieval Castles 139
Military Interpretation
The military interpretation of castles first began to be
questioned in the 1960s when archaeological research
began to address the problem of castie origins. As a result
of systematic field survey, it was realised that many of
the very earliest Norman castles were not of motte and
bailey type but were ringworks (an oval enclosure with
Teaching Medieval Castles 141
Post Bodiam
The ten years or so since 'the battle for Bodiam' have been
fruitful as far as publications on castles are concerned. A
number of general narrative accounts and specialised
monographs have appeared. J. Kenyon's Medieval
Fortifications summarised much archaeological work on
castles in England and Wales and this year also saw the
publication of N.J.G. Pounds' The Medieval Castle in
England and Wales, a massive study of castlebuilding
largely based on documentary research. M.W. Thompson's
The Rise of the Castle stuck closely to some older
interpretations but included valuable chapters on castles
as settlements. In 1992 T. McNeill's Castles rejected a
traditional chronological approach in favour of the social
and cultural dimensions of castle-building. The same year
saw the publication of P. Barker and R. Higham's study
Timber Castles, which was the first major survey of earth
and timber castles and dispelled the idea that such
fortifications were the poor relation of their masonry
counterparts.
The 1990s also saw a progressive stream of
publications all overtly contributing in some way to the
debate kick-started by Bodiam. Indeed, such has been the
pace of change that as early as 1996 warnings were
sounded about a 'bandwagon effect', whereby 'status'
replaced 'war' as a simplistic buzzword for the
development of castles. Considerable analysis and re-
interpretation of key buildings in the 'castle story' took
146 Teaching of History
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
EXPLORING EXPERIENCE
Instructional Goals
An oral history project has a multitude of instructional
goals for the students. Students will increase their
158 Teac1lillg of History
AREAS OF DISAGREEMENT
Timing Issues
As Argentine sociologist Elizabeth Jelin pointed out, the
idea that rancor between enemies fades as time passes is
not necessarily true: Time does not heal all wounds, and
returning to the contentious past occurs for many reasons
and at different stages in the lives of different societies.
New political developments and conflicts continuously
change the meaning of earlier events. If society does not
address the origins of the conflict effectively, they tend to
be the bases of future instability and conflict.
Sometimes one sector-religious institutions or
nongovernmental groups, for example-can deal more
openly with the past conflict, while others cannot. Popular
culture-film, theater, music, and literature-often leads the
way in helping a society face uncomfortable truths. But
Teaching COllflict Resolutioll 169
Structural Issues
Determining which languages shall be used to instruct
schoolchildren is one of many issues for post-conflict
school systems and is particularly problematic in divided,
multiethnic, and multilingual societies. Although it is
important for children of a multilingual country to learn
the language (and, by extension, culture) of other main
groups of citizens in addition to their own mother tongue,
having too many official languages in the schools can
promote semiliteracy, poor performance, high repetition,
and high dropout rates. At the same time, the rising
importance of English as a useful language in the global
marketplace is increasingly influencing language policies.
Ethnic segregation or integration of schools also is an
important structural aspect of education. When different
ethnic groups are educated separately within the national
education system, and especially when one ethnic (or
gender) group receives more educational resources than
another, such arrangements can convey important overt
or hidden messages to students. Some educational systems
Teaching Conflict Resolutioll 171
Role of Outsiders
In post-conflict countries receIvmg substantial foreign
attention, post-conflict reconstruction increasingly tends to
be transnational, although "insiders," or locals, are the ones
who will have to live with, and take responsibility for,
the long-term results of reconstruction and reform work.
Outsiders who work on history-education reform tend to
be from nongovernmental organisations rather than
transnational organisations or foreign governments; some
academics from foreign universities also are becoming
involved. Often, however, powerful outside actors,
particularly funders, view education as a domestic issue
that "insiders" are best qualified to tackle. They consider
other transitional justice processes, such as trials and
elections, worthier of their time and support, as well as
more appropriate for outsider involvement.
Predictably, outsiders' contributions to educational
reform efforts are both positive and negative. On the
positive side, outsiders can get insiders engaged in reform
processes that are too contentious for locals to handle on
their own, bringing together groups otherwise disinclined
to work together. For example, in Rwanda, where the
teaching of national history was still suspended a decade
after the genocide ended, outsiders played a catalytic role
in encouraging the education ministry to begin reforming
the history curriculum.
In that case, the Human Rights Center of the
University of California, Berkeley, worked to connect and
174 Teaching of History
Curriculum Content
The revision of history textbook content is inextricably
linked to larger political debates about which narratives
of history are true. Secondary-school history textbooks
rarely, if ever, playa pioneering role in tackling highly
sensitive issues or changing historical narratives that are
not widely accepted in society. A key problem for
educators is achieving agreement on historical narratives.
Social consensus must be reached to ensure approval and
adoption of history textbooks that break with old myths
glorifying one group and demonising others. How much
consensus is necessary to change problematic history
textbooks that feed the cycle of violence, and how can
consensus ever be achieved?
Teaching Conflict Resolution 177
Reforming Pedagogy
One of the most important insights from the conference is
that reforming pedagogy-the way history is taught-should
take priority in many contexts over curriculum rev~ion,
especially when resources are scarce. Pedagogy that
emphasizes rote learning, uncritical thinking, and the
authority of a narrowly- defined, "true" narrative is
unlikely to permit new understandings of former enemies
180 Teachillg of History
External Presentations
The themes were chosen for the external presentations on
the grounds that they offered support for those seeking
to promote the handling of contentious issues in history.
Historiography in Irish History, the theme of Professor
Jeffery'S talk, was selected because, in the context of
Ireland, the work of revisionist historians in challenging
the anti-colonialist, pro-nation building version of the
country's history, has been deemed a significant pre-
requisite for the multi-perspective approach adopted by
the school curriculum in the 1990s. His viewpoint was
interesting in that he placed less emphasis on the
revisionist interpretations themselves and more on the
impact that the modelling of healthy historical debate in
public has on the image of history as popular discourse.
Therefore, discussion at an academic level can
translate through the experience of the historical training
of students into the adoption of an enquiry approach in
the classroom. In the discussion that followed the extent
of the influence the academy has on the school curriculum
was identified as an important issue, especially in those
countries where the 'science' of history was perceived as
the pursuit of absolute truth. This presented particular
obstacles to educational changes in many of the emerging
democracies in Eastern Europe. Professor Hopken's
presentation was of central importance to the seminar.
History teaching in the United Kingdom has, to a
considerable extent, freed itself from the 'tyranny' of the
textbook. Commercial publishers produce books and
teachers have the freedom to choice texts they deem
Teaching Conflict Resolution 201
teachers;
education school faculty members and deans;
university historians and department chairs;
local school administrators and school committees/
board members;
representatives of state departments of education; and
members of state education and university governing
boards.
TEACHERS
Colleges of Education
Conferees recommended that college of education faculty
be given the authority to reduce the required number of
Certification of History Teachers 217
University Historians
These points were made by and to university historians
and department chairs. Historians must press university
administrators and trustees to establish sustainable
personnel policies that end the disincentives for history
faculty members to work with colleagues in other
departments to educate and mentor prospective teachers.
In addition, history faculties must review the character and
requirements of their major and minor programmes (with
advice from graduates who have become classroom
teachers).
General education requirements for the freshman and
sophomore years did not escape scrutiny; conferees
recommended that historians must join their colleagues in
the arts and sciences to refocus general education on basic
core courses, including courses in United States history,
Western civilisation, and world history for all students.
218 Teaching of History
Governing Boards
Members of state education and university governing
boards must take responsibility for insuring the
implementation of the above changes, focusing on those
that state and local officers and university presidents and
deans for many reasons often cannot make on their own.
Vital among these necessary changes are stricter college
admissions requirements, specific core requirements for the
general education of freshmen and sophomores, reformed
department majors, broader doctoral programmes to
prepare college teachers, and revised incentives for
faculties of education and arts and sciences.
220 Teaching of History
CLASS ORGANISATION
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
RESEARCH METHODS
Computer Technology
A third major component of the class is a weekly
laboratory presentation about some aspect of computer
technology, followed by a hands-on application of that
skill. During the course of the semester, the students are
expected to employe-mail during the list discussions;
obtain documents by File Transfer Protocol (FTP) from the
National Archives, Library of Congress, Texas State Library
or elsewhere; use on-line public access catalogs; subscribe
to one H-Net list (in addition to the H-Methods list on
the campus); discuss history subjects on Newsgroups;
demonstrate Gopher, Archie, Jughead, and Veronica
searches; and employ W AIS and WWW searches. The
emphasis and examples are on history resources available,
not on other amusing but not relevant features of the
Internet.
The professor has been interested in finding a book
focusing on the history resources on the Internet. For the
computer laboratory component of the class, there are
many books dealing with the Internet in general which
could be used as textbooks. But many of these books are
technical, very large, expensive, and often deal with a great
deal that is not necessarily useful to history students. For
this part of the class there has been no textbook, but there
are a series of handouts for the students. By the end of
232 Teaching of Histonj
HISTORICAL SCENARIOS
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS
CONTENT ISSUES
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
ASSESSMENT CONSIDERATIONS
PROGRESSION