Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary school social studies teachers’ perspectives on the differences between disciplinary history and school history. A purposeful sampling procedure was employed to recruit participants for the study. Social studies teachers were selected as the participants of the study. The method of data collection was in-depth, semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. Descriptive qualitative data analysis was used to analyze the interview transcripts. The research findings showed that the teachers see differences between the two types of history in terms of their orientations, the ways they are presented, the context in which history is taught and learned, including institutional constraints that affect history education, and resources used. These categories of teachers’ responses are not mutually exclusive but overlapping. Generally suspicious of textbooks, the teachers have a negative view of textbooks because of their detrimental effects on history education. They also see differences in academic history books and school history textbooks in terms of the perspective, the ownership of the perspective, the style of presentation, the quality of presentation, the sources of information, the treatment of controversial issues, the external influences on publication, the goals of publication, and the ways they are used. From the teachers’ responses, academic historians differ from history teachers in terms of their professional orientations, pedagogical skills and practices, specialization or level of expertise, type of instruction, treatment of subject matters, type of student population in both settings, the nature of relationship with students, and the context or working conditions. Because these findings are not documented in previous studies, they not only contribute to our understanding of how social studies teachers differentiate between two types of history, but also guide upcoming research studies in the field.
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- 1.
Clark, Christopher M., and Penelope L. Peterson, “Teachers’ thought processes.” In Merlin C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching. 3rd ed. (New York: MacMillan, 1986): 255–296; Daniel D. Pratt and Associates. Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and Higher Education. (Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing, 1998).
- 2.
Ibid.
- 3.
Elizabeth S. Hancock and Alejandro J. Gallard, “Preservice science teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning: The influence of K-12 field experiences.” Journal of Science Teacher Education 15, no. 4 (2004): 281–291; Mikel F. Pajares, “Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct.” Review of Educational Research 62, no. 3 (1992): 307–332; Alba G. Thompson, “Teachers’ beliefs and conceptions: A synthesis of the research.” In Douglas A. Grouws (Ed.), Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 127–146; Alba G. Thompson, “Teachers’ beliefs and conceptions: A synthesis of the research.” In Douglas A. Grouws (Ed.), Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (New York: Macmillan, 1992).
- 4.
Keith Trigwell, Michael Prosser and Fiona Waterhouse, “Relations between teachers’ approaches to teaching and students’ approaches to learning,” Higher Education 37 (1999): 57–70.
- 5.
Zhihui Fang, “A Review of Research on Teacher Beliefs and Practices.” Educational Research 38, no. 1 (1996): 47–65.
- 6.
Stephen J. Thornton, “Teachers as Curricular-Instructional Gatekeeper in Social Studies.” In James P. Shaver (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning: A Project of The National Council for The Social Studies (New York: Macmillan, 1991), 197–209.
- 7.
Ronald W. Evans, “Lessons from History: Teacher and Student Conceptions of the Meaning of History.” Theory and Research in Social Education 16, no. 3 (1988): 203–225; Ronald W. Evans, “Teacher Conception of History.” Theory and Research in Social Education 17, no. 3 (1989): 210–40; Ronald W. Evans, “Teachers’ Conceptions of History Revisited: Ideology, Curriculum and Student Belief.” Theory and Research in Social Education 18, no. 2 (1990): 101–138.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
The view of history as an ongoing progress or as a decline is called “Whig interpretation of history” and “nostalgia,” respectively, in the historical literature. Both are characterized by teleological historical writing, which is most interested in unfolding patterns in history as progress or decline.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
Suzanne M. Wilson and Samuel S. Wineburg, “Peering at History through Different Lenses: The Role of Disciplinary Perspectives in Teaching History.” Teachers College Record 89, no. 4 (1988): 525–539.
- 12.
The researchers say six teachers were interviewed and observed, but for some reason they present only four participants’ conceptions of history.
- 13.
Samuel S. Wineburg, “Historical problem Solving. A Study of the Cognitive Processes Used in the Evaluation of Documentary and Pictorial Evidence.” Journal of Educational Psychology 83 (1991a): 73–87; Samuel S. Wineburg, “On the Reading of Historical Texts: Notes on the Breach between School and Academy.” American Educational Research Journal 28 (1991b): 495–519.
- 14.
Elizabeth Anne Yeager and O. L. Davis Jr., “Between Campus and Classroom: Secondary Student-Teachers’ Thinking about Historical Texts.” Journal of Research and Development in Education 29, no. 1 (1995): 1–8.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
James H. Donnelly, “Interpreting Differences: The Educational Aims of Teachers of Science and History, and their Implications.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 31, no. 1 (1999): 17–41.
- 17.
David Hicks, Examining preservice teachers conceptions and approaches to the teaching of history in England and America. Paper presented at the International Assembly Annual Conference of NCSS (Washington, DC, 2001).
- 18.
Virta Arja, “Student Teachers’ Conceptions of History.” International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research 2, No. 1 (2001).
- 19.
Jon Nichol and Robert Malcolm Guyver, “From Novice to Effective Teacher: A Study of Postgraduate Training and History Pedagogy.” International Journal of Historical Learning Teaching and Research 4, no. 8 (2004): 76–126. Retrieved from www.ex.ac.uk/historyresource
- 20.
Zhihui Fang, “A Review of Research on Teacher Beliefs and Practices.” Educational Research 38, no. 1 (1996): 59.
- 21.
Peter J. Lee, “History Teaching and Philosophy of History.” History and Theory 22, no. 4 (1983):19–49; Peter Seixas, “Review of Research on Social Studies.” In Virginia Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Teaching (Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 2001), 545–565; Samuel S. Wineburg, “The Psychology of Learning and Teaching History.” In David C. Berliner, and Robert C. Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1996), 423–437.
- 22.
Michael Quinn Patton, Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002).
- 23.
Catherine Marshall and Gretchen B. Rossman, Designing Qualitative Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999). Matthew B. Miles and Michael A. Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994).
- 24.
Patton, “Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods,” 2002.
- 25.
Catherine Charmaz, Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006).
- 26.
Patton, “Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods,” 2002.
- 27.
Lee S. Shulman, “Teaching as Community Property: Putting an End to Pedagogical Solitude.” Change 25, no. 6 (1993): 6–7.
- 28.
Pamela Grossman, Suzanne M. Wilson, and Lee S. Shulman, “Teachers of Substance: Subject Matter Knowledge for Teaching.” In Maynard C. Reynolds, (Ed.), Knowledge Base for the Beginning Teacher (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1989), 23–36.
- 29.
Linda M McNeil, Contradictions of Control: School Structure and School Knowledge (New York: Routledge, 1988); Stephen J. Thornton, “Teachers as curricular-instructional gatekeeper in social studies.” In James P. Shaver (Ed.), Handbook of research on social studies teaching and learning: A project of the National Council for the Social Studies (New York: Macmillan, 1991), 197–209.
- 30.
Bruce A. VanSledright, “Closing the Gap Between School and Disciplinary History?: Historian as High School History Teacher.” Advances in Research on Teaching 6 (1996): 257.
- 31.
Fritz Fischer, “Preparation of Future History Teachers: The History Departments’ Role.” Perspectives 44, no. 9 (2006).
- 32.
Caroline Hoefferle, “Teaching Historiography to High School and Undergraduate Students.” OAH Magazine of History (2007), 41.
- 33.
Denis Shemilt, “The Gods of the Copybook Headings: Why Don’t We Learn from the Past?” In Lukas Perikleous and Denis Shemilt (Eds). The Future of the Past: Why History Education Matters. (Nicosia: Association for Historical Dialogue and Research, 2011), 69.
- 34.
Kaya Yilmaz, “Postmodernism and its Challenge to the Discipline of History: Implications for History Education.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 42, no. 7 (2010): 789.
- 35.
Suzanne M. Wilson, “Research on History Teaching.” In Virginia Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of research on Teaching (Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 2001), 527–544.
- 36.
G. Williamson McDiarmid and Peter Vinten-Johansen, “A Catwalk across the Great Divide: Redesigning the History Teaching Methods Course.” In Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg (Eds.), Knowing, Teaching and Learning History: National and International Perspectives (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2000), 156–177.
- 37.
Bruce A. VanSledright, “Historical Study, the heritage curriculum, and Educational Research.” Issues in Education 4, no. 2 (1998): 243–250.
- 38.
Peter N. Stearns, “Putting Learning Research to Work: The Next Step in History Teaching.” Issues in Education 4, no. 2 (1998): 238.
- 39.
Peter Seixas, “Review of Research on Social Studies.” In Virginia Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Teaching (Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 2001), 545–565.
- 40.
George F. Madaus, “The Influence of Testing on the Curriculum.” In Laurel N. Tanner (Ed.), Critical Issues in Curriculum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 83.
- 41.
Sandra Mathison, “Assessment in Social Studies: Moving Toward Authenticity.” In Ross, E. Wayne (Ed.), The Social Studies Curriculum: Purposes, Problems, and Possibilities (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001).
- 42.
Janet Alleman and Jere Brophy, “The changing nature and purpose of assessment in the social studies classroom.” Social Education 63, no. 6 (1999): 334–337.
- 43.
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) “NCSS Position Statement on Testing and Evaluation of Social Studies Students. Position Statement and Guidelines,” 1991.
- 44.
Kaya Yilmaz, “Historical Empathy and its Implications for Classroom Practices in Schools.” History Teacher 40 (2007): 331–337.
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Yilmaz, K. (2020). Social Studies Teachers’ Perspectives on the Differences Between Disciplinary History and School History. In: Berg, C.W., Christou, T.M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of History and Social Studies Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37210-1_2
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