Scoundrel or freedom fighter? Creating historical empathy inquiries

Abstract

PurposeThis work explores the creation and purposes of an inquiry about Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino revolutionary and sometimes United States ally, as a means to discuss the value of both inquiry and historical empathy in bridging history instruction and civic life. Though history is often identified as a means to foster democratic dispositions, learning can often feel disconnected from students' lived experiences, let alone directly connect to their out-of-classroom circumstances. Teaching with historical empathy allows students to affectively engage with content, resulting in complex reasoning and content acquisition.Design/methodology/approachThe authors explain an original inquiry that uses the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) and historical empathy to help students complicate Emilio Aguinaldo and his legacy. By combining historical empathy and the inquiry model, the authors structured their work for practitioner use but also as a way to draw on rarely emphasized content in US or World history courses.FindingsIn using this model, students will be able to apply their learning in a civic engagement task related to modern questions of US geopolitics.Originality/valueThe authors offer and explore the process of an original inquiry as a way to help practitioners and scholars consider how to create other such rigorous opportunities for students to practice global citizenship.

They Were Here: A Study on High School Students’ Engagement in Historical Empathy With a Local History Research Project

“…This project began in 2021 when “new challenges in preparing students for their civic lives” arose in the wake of the social justice protests following the George Floyd murder, the 2020 presidential election, and the COVID-19 pandemic (Muetteries & Bronstein, 2020, p. 155). Given the myriad of issues concerning teaching hard histories and controversial issues pertaining to matters such as race, we sought to find how engaging students in this local history research project about the Cemetery could promote the cognitive and affective tenets of HE.…”

The Historical Empathy Measurement Tool (HEMT)

“…In a study of the 1918 Finnish Civil War, Rantala et al (2016) used interviews and essays written by students to collect evidence of their historical empathy. In a study of Emilio Aquinaldo, a Filipino revolutionary (Muetterties & Bronstein, 2020), students wrote a summative assessment of Aguinaldo, and also took an informed action in which they had to assess their own thoughts and actions in present circumstances. Hartmann and Hasselhorn (2008) took a different avenue to collect evidence of historical empathy.…”