Parents', Students', and Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching Heritage Histories in Public School History Classrooms

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the expectations and beliefs parents, students, and teachers have about the teaching of heritage histories in public high schools. Students from three heritage groups, as well as their parents and teachers, were interviewed to shed light on this complex, often silent, relationship. This study is grounded in literature about the purposes of history education, historical distance, and collective memory/heritage, which give shape to and help to explicate some of the more complex issues inherent in the teaching of heritage histories. Participants included four Hmong students, three of their parents, and their teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota; eight Chinese students, nine of their parents, and their teacher in Elmdale, California; and five Jewish students, five of their parents, and their teacher in Maple Lake, Illinois. Findings indicate that the three stakeholder groups believe that the public school history classroom is an appropriate and desired place for heritage histories to be taught. This is complicated, however, by several factors: the placement of the heritage history narratives within larger curricular and mainstream narratives, how the teachers choose to incorporate the heritage narratives into the formal classroom curriculum, and the changing nature of historical and generational distance.

“We didn't have to go through those barriers”: Culturally affirming learning in a high school affinity group

“…We contend that while students of color ideally should have access to culturally affirming knowledge inside social studies classrooms, this experience demonstrates why that kind of knowledge can only be engaged effectively within learning spaces that challenge the norms of conventional social studies education. While we agree with researchers who assert that talking about race and racism in U.S. social studies classrooms is foundational in dismantling the everyday White supremacy present in schools (Blum, 2012;Chikkatur, 2013;Ellsworth, 1989;Epstein, 2000;Howard, 2004;King, 2014;Levy, 2016;Martell, 2013Martell, , 2017Woodson, 2016), this study demonstrates how the continued presence of racialized power relations in our schools can make it difficult to do so. We start by describing the research methodology and theoretical framework and by situating the classroom context and the study.…”

Learning the Cultural Heritage by Documenting: Field Experiences of Teacher Candidates of Social Studies

“…Bu araştırmalar, ağırlıklı olarak öğrenciler, öğretmenler ve aday öğretmenlerle yürütülmüştür. İlk gruptaki araştırmalarda, daha çok öğrencilerin kültürel mirasla ilgili alanlar hakkındaki bilgi (Akkaya, 2017), deneyim (Aslan ve Çulha, 2008), görüş (Gürdoğan-Bayır ve Çengelci-Köse, 2019;Gürel ve Çetin, 2019;Karakuş, Çepni ve Kılcan, 2011) algı (Levy, 2016;Tuncel ve Altuntaş, 2020), tutum (Arıkan ve Doğan, 2013;Dönmez ve Yeşilbursa, 2014;Ismaeel ve Al-Abdullatif, 2016) ve farkındalık (Sağ ve Ünal, 2019;Uztemur, Dinc ve Acun, 2019) durumlarının değerlendirildiğini söylemek mümkündür. İkinci grupta, öğretmenlerle yapılan çalışmalarda (Adukaite, van Zyl, Er ve Cantoni, 2017;Avcı ve Memişoğlu, 2016;Giménez, Ruiz ve Listán, 2008;Kafol, Dena ve Znidarsic, 2015;Lee ve Bang, 2011;Levy, 2016;Özlek, 2019;Pérez, López ve Listán, 2010), çeşitli branşlardaki öğretmenlerin kültürel miras konuları ve öğretimi hakkındaki görüşlerine başvurulmuştur.…”

“…These studies have been predominantly carried out with students, teachers, and teacher candidates. It can be seen that the students' knowledge, viewpoint, perception, attitude, and awareness of the areas relevant to cultural heritage were assessed in the studies of the first group (Akkaya, 2017;Arıkan and Doğan, 2013;Aslan ve Çulha, 2008;Dönmez and Yeşilbursa, 2014;Gürdoğan-Bayır and Çengelci-Köse, 2019;Gürel and Çetin, 2019;Ismaeel and Al-Abdullatif, 2016;Karakuş, Çepni and Kılcan, 2011;Levy, 2016;Sağ and Ünal, 2019;Tuncel and Altuntaş, 2020;Uztemur, Dinc and Acun, 2019). In second group studies have focused on the insights of teachers in different branches on cultural heritage issues and its teaching (Adukaite, van Zyl, Er and Cantoni, 2017;Avcı and Memişoğlu, 2016;Giménez, Ruiz and Listán, 2008;Kafol, Dena and Znidarsic, 2015;Lee and Bang, 2011;Levy, 2016;Özlek, 2019;Pérez, López and Listán, 2010).…”

Unofficial and Unconventional Social Studies Spaces for Students of Color

“…Social Studies scholarship has identified that students of different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds and identities have divergent understandings of history (An, 2009; Barton, 2001; Epstein, 1998; Levy, 2016; Peck, 2010). Additionally, scholars have studied how students of color distrust social studies teachers and the curriculum, even going so far as to call the official history narratives lies (Busey & Russell, 2016; Santiago, 2017; Woodson, 2016, 2018).…”