A Critical Geographical Approach to Understanding Students’ Perspectives of Indigenous History

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Abstract

This study addresses a gap in social studies education: although interdisciplinary teaching is widely promoted, few empirical studies examine how students understand the intersection of time and space in history learning. Using students’ engagement with Indigenous histories of displacement and boarding schools as a case, the paper shows they could narrate temporal continuity and long-term impacts yet rarely integrated spatial reasoning. Indigenous lands were treated as static “places” instead of dynamic, produced spaces shaped by boundary making, resource control, and jurisdictional fragmentation. This temporal–spatial disconnect obscured land’s role as an active historical force and thus limited explanatory depth. Findings underscore the need to embed critical geographical perspectives and explicit spatial inquiry within history education.

Author

• Yubing Liu, University of Wisconsin - Madison