Page 88 - Balancing between the present and the past
P. 88

                                Chapter 4
historical context knowledge, including knowledge about chronology, before they can perform historical contextualization. Reisman and Wineburg (2008) also stressed the importance of background knowledge for the performance of historical contextualization. To reconstruct the historical context, students and teachers can use different frames of reference such as the chronological frame of reference, spatial frame of reference, or social frame of reference (e.g., De Keyser & Vandepitte, 1998; Pontecorvo & Girardet, 1993; Van Boxtel & Van Drie, 2012). The chronological frame includes knowledge of time and period, significant events, and developments (Dawson, 2009; Wilschut, 2012). The spatial frame focuses on knowledge of (geographical) locations and scale (Havekes et al., 2012). The social frame includes not only knowledge of human behavior and the social conditions of life but also knowledge of socio-economic, socio-cultural, and socio-political developments (Van Boxtel & Van Drie, 2004). To reconstruct the historical context, teachers and students should explore the different frames of reference. For example, in previous research, we found that most students who used and combined different types of knowledge (e.g., chronological, spatial, economic, political, and cultural knowledge) obtained higher scores on a historical contextualization task than students who used a single type of knowledge (Huijgen, Van Boxtel, Van de Grift, & Holthuis, 2017). Teachers could use different sources to build the different frames of knowledge, such as movies (Marcus, 2005; Metzger, 2012), written documents, objects, and images (Fasulo, Girardet, & Pontecorvo, 1998; Van Drie & Van Boxtel, 2008).
Second, although some scholars claim that historical empathy is idealistic and can never be fully achieved because most historical agents are dead (e.g., Kitson, Husbands, & Steward, 2011; Riley, 1998; Wineburg, 2001), most scholars agree that historical empathy could promote historical contextualization (e.g., Cunningham, 2007; Davis, 2001; Endacott & Brooks, 2013; Lee & Ashby, 2001; Skolnick, Dulberg, & Maestre, 2004). Historical empathy focuses on empathizing with people in the past based on historical knowledge that explains their actions. Colby (2008) noted that the primary purpose of historical empathy is to enable students to transcend the boundaries of presentism by developing a rich understanding of the past from multiple viewpoints. In history lessons, teachers could focus on a historical agent to gain insight into the views and values of people who lived in the past (e.g., Foster, 1999; Wooden, 2008) or discuss historical agents’ decisions with a group of students (Kohlmeier, 2006). Teachers could also promote historical empathy by promoting the formation of affective connections with the historical agent based on students’
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