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An analysis of tasks set for students in a sample of Year 8 textbooks finds limitations in their success at fostering historical empathy and perspectives.
History teachers are familiar with questions asking students to 'imagine' themselves as an historical actor, such as 'Imagine you are a medieval peasant who has survived the Black Death,' or 'Imagine that you are the Pope and you have decided that Galileo is a heretic.' These asks are often found at the end of a textbook chapter detailing historical daily life or the life story of a significant historical actor.
Historical empathy and perspectives engage students in critical historical thinking. The ability to explore perspectives and exercise empathy are transferable constructs that are pertinent to students' lives.1 Teaching students to humanise people who differ from themselves is key to them participating as global citizens. Endacott and Brooks state that historical empathy is a process that involves understanding how people from the past thought, felt, made decisions, acted and responded within their specific historical and social context.2
History textbooks, as key texts that interpret the official curriculum of state and territory-based syllabuses, can support students' engagement in empathy and historical perspectives. However, instead of asking students to fully analyse and explore the methods of historical perspectives, textbook questions that aim to explore historical perspectives are sometimes composed in a superficial way.3 Questions that ask students to 'imagine' or 'pretend' that they are historical actors are often limiting.
This article addresses to what extent textbook activities and tasks foster historical empathy and/or perspectives. It examines whether these tasks enable historical perspectives through a historical empathy lens. One purpose for teaching History is that it can humanise those who engage in it.4 Engaging and empathising with a range of perspectives, different to one's own, are skills needed for an inclusive and diverse society.
Theme Identification through a question matrix provides an analytical framework for examining History textbook questions that aim to engage students in historical empathy and perspectives.5 Each question is evaluated against the key concepts and theories that follow.
'Taking' and 'Exploring' Perspectives
Historical perspectives are often partnered with the verb 'taking.' Perspective 'taking' provides an understanding of how the historical situation may have impacted the historical actor's actions and reactions.6...