Toward a Dialogical Conceptualization of Learning History Within Israeli Multiple-Perspective Educational Environments

• In Event: 16.024 - International Research on Teaching and Learning History: Findings From Belgium, Israel, Sweden, and the United States

Abstract

Due to processes of globalization and digitalism, students frequently face encounters with different, even conflicting Others, namely individuals and groups with narratives, values, and viewpoints differ from those typically found locally. History can be a powerful venue for preparing students to cope with this reality by assisting students in re-thinking themselves as active agents in society (Barton, 2012; Seixas, Peck, & Poyntz, 2011). However, although in recent years interest in multi-perspective environments in history education has grown, little is known about learning processes in these environments (Barton and McCully, 2010; McCully, 2012). Relying on Bakhtin’s dialogical theory, we propose that fruitful multi-perspective environments be conceptualized as those that generate opportunities for internally persuasive discourse (IPD): a regime in which the participants critically examine their narrative in light of the alternatives that others (agents and text) might present (Matusov, 2009).

We demonstrate the power of such conceptualization by describing the results of two research projects in which we traced the learning processes of students within such educational environments. In one project, 104 high-school Israeli students, 52 Jews and 52 Arabs, collaboratively e-investigated an event related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the second, 24 Israeli Jewish students collaboratively e-investigated their families' past—those who immigrated to Israel (before or after the founding of the State of Israel) from different diasporas. In both activities students were encouraged to examine their narratives in light of critiques and alternatives presented by their peers and were asked to write a joint essay. We analyzed all the essays that students wrote before and through peer collaboration (including all the drafts) as well as the written communication between the students. We employed a Grounded Theory approach using thematic analysis and discourse analysis methods.

The joint essays can be described as ‘mosaics’ of perspectives in which pieces of participants' initial narratives were interwoven to generate a new perspective with (a) an improved perception of the constraints under which the historical agents operated, (b) an attribution of responsibility for the events to in-group historical agents, (c) more awareness of their sense of belonging using their judgment, and (d) an enhanced recognition of the influence of historical representations on their lives. These findings, put into a coherent dialogic framework, emphasize that fruitful participation is not necessarily expressed by combining several diverse voices into one, but rather, by setting up a dialogical agency comprising the participants, an important asset in diverse, democratic, and sustainable multi-cultural societies.

Authors

• Yifat Ben-David Kolikant, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Sarah Pollack, Hebrew University of Jerusalem