Historical Consciousness of Families Within the Context of Migration

• In Event: Critical Conversations About Identity and Equity in History Education

Abstract

This qualitative study examines what foreign-born parents believe their adolescent children should learn about the past. Using semi-structured interviews and three elicitation techniques, five foreign-born parents of high-school-aged children were interviewed ­­about their relationships to history, their cultural pasts, and the historical practices that they engage in with their children. Findings indicate that family members experienced varying degrees to which they had abandoned or strengthened their connections to their pasts after arriving in and raising children in the United States, yet all maintained some historic practices that they felt strongly about passing onto their adolescent children.

Author

• Rebecca Ford