ENGAGING OUR HISTORIES AND THE DIFFICULT HISTORIES WE TEACH Stephanie C. Konle A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education. Chapel Hill 2018 Approved by: Madeleine R. Grumet Cheryl Mason Bolick Suzanne Gulledge Xue Lan Rong Lynda Stone © 2018 Stephanie C. Konle ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Stephanie C. Konle: Engaging Our Histories and the Difficult Histories We Teach (Under the direction of Madeleine R. Grumet) This dissertation proposes to enrich the scope of history education research, and by extension the preparation of history and social studies teachers and the classroom experiences of their students, through the inclusion of autobiography in the study of history. Education research on the teaching of history has typically focused on what scholars call “historical thinking skills,” skills imported from the professional discipline, including contextualization, perspective, use of evidence, etc. While these disciplinary methods are important for the promotion of a deeper and more critical understanding of the past, they often neglect the more emotionally fraught interests, concerns, and questions about the past that teachers and students bring into the classroom. In this research I convened six teachers who teach history or social studies in the Southeast United States, asking them to reflect on how their own relationships to—and anxieties about—particular past events relate to their teaching practice. Participants generated narratives and read and discussed each other’s work along with selections of scholarly texts chosen to prompt further reflection. Findings highlight teachers’ fears and concerns about the teaching of difficult knowledge and the responsibility of guiding students in learning about the most challenging legacies of our collective past. Findings will also inform participants’ practice, the field of social studies teacher education, social studies practice and curriculum reform, as well as the field of curriculum theory. iii To Dr. Heather Alumbaugh iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to the women who served on this committee for their support and encouragement throughout the duration of my studies at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Lynda Stone, you brought new perspectives to the questions I asked and pushed my thinking. Dr. Cheryl Bolick, your steadfast enthusiasm for this project and conversations about the social studies sustained me. To Dr. Suzanne Gulledge I am thankful for giving me the opportunity to teach the social studies methods class, where the idea for this project was born, and for your availability and counsel. Dr. Xue Rong, you shared your expertise and your wisdom, and were my advocate in matters of material and professional concern, patient, candid, and positive: thank you. And Dr. Madeleine Grumet, you are home and you are love. You helped me to articulate intuitions and turn them into a project that is about the mind and the heart and that I hope has made you proud. I am forever grateful at the chance to learn from you. I would like to acknowledge the encouragement and affection throughout graduate school from my friend and colleague Mariah Smith Murrell: from the first moments of our classes together I knew we could count on and learn from each other. Thank you also to Hillary Parkhouse: you unselfishly gave of your time and shared resources, advice, ideas, and friendship. Thank you to Wenyang Sun for our study dates and conversations and to Esmeralda Rodriguez for your humor, kindness, and cultural and linguistic nurturance. I am so very grateful to the six teachers who participated in this project. Your honesty and vulnerability humbled me at each of our meetings, as did your clear and constant dedication to the young people you teach. It is not easy, or encouraged, to express doubts v about the project of educating the young, and even more of a challenge to, in this time, express hope about the future in teaching the past. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and intelligence, and the care with which you did the hard work of thinking about what it means to understand the past. To Tessie Alden, owner of Tessie’s Daycare, thank you for peace of mind during the time writing took me away from Rafael. You have provided a loving and warm place for my son to be. Thank you to my mother for her humor and support, which kept me going even from so far away. To Flynne Wiley: thank you for almost two decades of friendship and love. Mary Ellen Strote, you have been my champion, editor, sponsor, and friend since you came into my life and I am grateful you’ve kept me. To Noah Strote, you’ve been the writing group I always wanted and a loving, unwavering intellectual partner even when I insist on remaining a difficult woman. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF STUDY......................................... 1 1.1 Introduction: Connections to the Past ..................................................................... 1 1.2 Outline of the Dissertation .................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: MAKING SENSE OF THE PAST .................................................................. 14 2.1 Historical Consciousness and How We Shape Images of the Past ....................... 18 2.2 Language, Narrative, and Historical Consciousness ............................................. 21 2.3 A Detour: Reflections on Content and Form ........................................................ 26 2.4 Purposes of Narratives of the Past: Learning About Who and How We Are ........................................................................................................................ 29 2.5 History and Memory in Making Sense of the Past ............................................... 36 2.6 History and Memory in Schools: Educational Interpretations and Applications ................................................................................................................ 39 2.6.1 Historical Thinking Defined ....................................................................... 39 2.6.2 Origins ........................................................................................................ 40 2.6.3 Contemporary Research in Historical Thinking ......................................... 41 2.6.4 Memory, Heritage, and History Education ................................................. 47 2.7 Voices and Reminders from within the Discipline ............................................... 48 2.8 Feelings about the Past in the Classroom ............................................................. 52 2.9 Bridging Historical Consciousness and Lived Experience: Making Meaning of the Past and Difficult Histories ............................................................... 56 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS ................................................................................ 59 3.1 Introduction: Origins ............................................................................................. 59 vii 3.2 Searching For a Method ........................................................................................ 62 3.3 Methodological Foundations and Frames ............................................................. 65 3.3.1 Autobiography ............................................................................................ 65 3.3.2 Phenomenological Frames .......................................................................... 66 3.3.3 Psychoanalytic Frames ............................................................................... 67 3.3.4 Pedagogical Frames .................................................................................... 70 3.4 The Study .............................................................................................................. 72 3.4.1 Brief Overview ........................................................................................... 72 3.4.2 Research Questions ..................................................................................... 72 3.4.3 Participant Selection ................................................................................... 73 3.4.4 Data Gathering ............................................................................................ 77 3.4.5 Interpretive Seminar ................................................................................... 80 3.4.6 Analysis and Interpretation ......................................................................... 85 CHAPTER 4: TEACHERS’ NARRATIVES OF EXPERIENCE ......................................... 88 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 88 4.2 The Group ............................................................................................................. 88 4.2.1 Alex ............................................................................................................. 89 4.2.2 Harriet ......................................................................................................... 90 4.2.3 Leonard ....................................................................................................... 91 4.2.4 Laura ..........................................................................................................