Revisiting History’s Interpretive Paradox: Engaging Secondary Sources to Reveal Historical Production in Secondary Classrooms

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 2:15 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: History, Social Studies, and (Critical) Inquiry

Abstract

As part of a larger design based study, this case study utiltizes a critical historiographical lens to explore the affordances and limitations of secondary source focused instruction on students’ understandings of history as an interpretive field. Initial findings suggest current primary source focused sourcing practices are inadequate for developing understandings of the complexity of historical narrative production, as students commonly attributed differences in historical interpretation to external factors, often ignoring more human elements. This study has implications for increased understandings of critical historiography and the use of secondary sources as means to disrupting history as objective knowledge.

Authors

• Liz Harrelson Magill, Baylor University

• Michael A. Krecker, Baylor University