ePost #1: What We Talk About When We Talk About Teaching History

Across many of the disciplines, the skew of gender can be seen. In my discipline, teaching history, this is readily apparent. I know some teachers who introduce their subject to their students at the beginning of the year with a “cute” word play on history = his + story. I don’t think they have any idea about bias, because those same teachers often claim the study of history claims to be objective. This is not the case. Historians and students of history have over the ages focused on the lives, deeds and impact of great white men.

The source of this thinking can be understood, on some level. Historians attempt to reconstruct the past based on written records, memoirs, and other written media. Traditionally, educated men left the most behind, being literate and holding access to paper and other materials. Unfortunately, oral histories, folk tales and other informal means of transmission--preferred by minorities--have faded away, or are difficult to verify. For this reason writing women’s histories are difficult to write on their own terms. I myself encountered this writing my senior thesis in university, when I explored the role of women in the late 1600s, and was forced to uncover the lives of everyday women in the Ottoman Empire through sources written by men.

For female students or members of minority groups, learning histories like these can be alienating and disempowering. We know that we’ve existed, but the absence of historical emphasis sends the message that in the end result, those histories aren’t what matter in the end. Ultimately, traditional power brokers continue to hold power, and there really isn’t much place for us to make a difference in world events. This is unfortunate, because to me, the entire purpose of studying history is to understand the world around us and empower us to make a difference in the course of our futures.

So we know we have a problem, but what can we do about it? The answer is simple -- lots! Luckily, we live in a world where histories of underrepresented and marginal groups continue to be written, countering the dominant narrative. From the 1960s, historians like Howard Zinn have challenged the dominant narrative by telling the stories of oppressed peoples in the United States. Women’s history has exploded as a serious sub-discipline, with critical theory about power and relationships to back it. The question for teachers at the middle school and high school level is how to incorporate these academic and theoretical innovations in the study of history, which often remains woefully limited in scope and often sticks to traditional narrative lines.

We live in a world where information resides at our fingertips, on the world wide web. For the intentional practitioner, including underrepresented voices in our history classes through innovative lesson plans and resources are a search term away. One educator, Peter Kear, has created a curriculum that allows students to experience the lives of Canadians of all stripes by “walking awhile in their shoes.” His curriculum encourages students to research and understand the trajectories and impact of Canadians from varying economic, racial and gender groups.

Ultimately, what this creates is a more inclusive history and an inclusive classroom. It offers teachers the chance to shift students perspective when it comes to the relevance of learning history at all (always a struggle) and it also empowers students to see themselves as agents of history and capable of making positive change.