Thinking and caring about indigenous peoples’ human rights: Swedish students writing history beyond scholarly debate

Considering the past and present of Romani in Sweden: secondary school pupils’ thinking and caring about the history of the Romani in national tests

“…When close reading the answers to a question asking pupils to corroborate sources describing the situation of Jews, Romani-and Sámi people in the seventeenth-century Sweden it is evident that corroboration stands out as a springboard for further comparison, judging and compassion, present-past discussion as well as perspective recognition and more general conclusions. In contrast to previous research (Nygren, 2016b;Nygren et al, 2014;Wineburg, 1998Wineburg, , 2001, scrutinising sources in terms of corroboration not only stays an "inner cognitive process" and a habit of mind, but is being reflected in textual coverage as well. Even if the current national syllabus for history underlines the importance of evaluating sources we find that this is not part of pupils' corroboration and of sources.…”

“…Scrutinising the source also become important when dealing with debated topics like the history of minorities. The design of the national test may also separate sourcing from other aspects of historical thinking and caring, but this split need to be further investigated since it is also evident in some previous research (Nygren, 2016b;Rosenlund, 2016). Noting the credibility of the source is central when navigating the past and present.…”

“…The coding scheme was adapted from previous research on historical thinking and historical empathy as caring to fit the aims and materials of this study (Nygren, 2016b). In the coding scheme ( Figure 1) historical thinking was constructed as a cognitive matter of sourcing, corroboration and perspective recognition (Lee & Ashby, 2001;Reisman, 2012;Wineburg, 2001).…”

“…al., 2014;Nygren, Vikström & Sandberg, 2014;Reisman, 2012). In addition, studies have explored and examined how subjective and objective elements of historical empathy may be stimulated in the classroom: suggesting that pupils are capable of both thinking and caring (Brooks, 2011(Brooks, , 2014Nygren, 2016b). In her research, Sarah Brooks has examined how pupils and teachers reason about the past in terms of historical empathy, suggesting perspective recognition and care as well as past-present discussion elements of empathy as caring: giving insight into what she describes as "the complex and nuanced task of inviting pupils to use the past to understand and act for the common good in their current world" (Brooks, 2014, p. 89).…”

“…In pupil essays about the history of indigenous people's human rights, Nygren (2016b) finds an intertwined relationship between the thinking and caring. A vast majority of the pupils combined normative moral judgments with the cognitive act of perspective recognition and this suggests that it is in fact possible to balance thinking and empathy (Nygren, 2016b). In classrooms Swedish pupils have also been noted to think and care about the human lives they encounter when working with digitised primary sources (parish registers).…”