New Directions in Assessing Historical Thinking

Kadriye Ercikan, Peter Seixas, Kadriye Ercikan, Peter Seixas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138018273
• eBook ISBN: 9781317699750
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

New technologies have radically transformed our relationship to information in general and to little bits of information in particular. The assessment of history learning, which for a century has valued those little bits as the centerpiece of its practice, now faces not only an unprecedented glut but a disconnect with what is valued in history education. More complex processes—historical thinking, historical consciousness or historical sense making—demand more complex assessments. At the same time, advances in scholarship on assessment open up new possibilities.

For this volume, Kadriye Ercikan and Peter Seixas have assembled an international array of experts who have, collectively, moved the fields of history education and assessment forward. Their various approaches negotiate the sometimes-conflicting demands of theoretical sophistication, empirically demonstrated validity and practical efficiency. Key issues include articulating the cognitive goals of history education, the relationship between content and procedural knowledge, the impact of students' language literacy on history assessments, and methods of validation in both large scale and classroom assessments. New Directions in Assessing Historical Thinking is a critical, research-oriented resource that will advance the conceptualization, design and validation of the next generation of history assessments.

Part I Goals of History Education

Models of Historical Cognition and Learning

DOI: 10.4324/9781315779539-2

1 Historical Consciousness in Germany

Concept, Implementation, Assessment

Carlos Kölbl and Lisa Konrad

DOI: 10.4324/9781315779539-3

Historical consciousness (“Geschichtsbewusstsein”) is one of the major concepts in history education in Germany, perhaps even its key concept. It is widely discussed in academia but has also left deep footprints in educational practice. In the wake of what has become known as “PISA-shock” in 2001—compared to pupils in other countries German students scored below the international average—the concept of historical consciousness is being transformed into an assessable competence. The assessment of historical thinking in Germany is inextricably linked with the concept of historical consciousness; thus, an understanding of this concept is an indispensable requirement for understanding German school curricula and models of assessment. Accordingly, we mainly focus on such conceptual explications in this contribution.

The chapter is organized into three sections. The first section defines historical consciousness and its core components as reflected in different conceptualizations. The second section describes the extent to which historical consciousness has been implemented in school curricula. The third section discusses how and to what extent historical consciousness is being transformed into an assessable competence in Germany.

What is Historical Consciousness?

History education cannot claim a monopoly on the term historical consciousness for it is a term also used in other related disciplines, such as psychology (e.g. Kölbl & Straub, 2001; Straub, 2005a), sociology (e.g. Leitner, 1994), or ethnology (e.g. Schott, 1968). Moreover, it is not a recent invention. Rather it dates at least back to empirical explorations in the era of Weimar (Sonntag, 1932). The term began to receive its greatest prominence, though, just when it was declared a core concept in matters of history education from the 1970s onwards. Rolf Schörken’s (1972) and Karl-Ernst Jeismann’s (1977) terminological explications and pro-grammatic arguments can be viewed as pioneering in this respect. In subsequent years, different functional, structural, and developmental approaches were proposed (Schönemann, 2012, pp. 102–109).¹ We will first focus on two of the most prominent of these, Jörn Rüsen’s (1993) highly influential functional approach revolving around the act of narrating history, and Hans-Jürgen Pandel’s (1987) broadly received structural approach, which divides historical consciousness into seven different categories. Then we present an approach stressing the psychological and developmental basis of the concept of historical consciousness. Recently, theoretical efforts inspired by diversity studies have been undertaken to more or less fundamentally rethink historical consciousness. The main focus of these studies is to analyze social categories like race, class, and gender, their complex intersections, and the ways in which they contribute to social inequalities. Martin Lücke’s approach, drawing on diversity studies will be discussed at the end of this section. The discussion will point to possible relations between Lücke’s and other models of historical consciousness. Also, links between theory and empirical phenomena will be addressed.

Types of Narrative Construction of History

In Jörn Rüsen’s conceptualization of historical consciousness (see Rüsen, 1993 and Rüsen, Fröhlich, Horstkötter, & Schmidt, 1991), narrating history and understanding historical narratives play essential roles, as do narrative abbreviations such as “Auschwitz.” Rüsen proposes a multifaceted understanding of historical consciousness and does so by offering several conceptual distinctions: (a) different degrees of consciousness and awareness; (b) different dimensions (political, cognitive, rhetorical, and aesthetic); (c) different modes of articulation ranging from ordinary to highly complex; (d) different topoi, e.g. the prominent topos of “historia magistra vitae”; and (e) four types of narrative construction of history. This last differentiation constitutes the most prominent part of Rüsen’s concept and consists of what he calls traditional, exemplary, critical, and genetic types.

In the traditional type, the past is regarded as an ensemble of events and interpretations that have immediate meaning for the present. No differences are seen in principle between present and past. Maxims of action of the past can be transferred without attention to historical perspective.

In the exemplary type, past events and phenomena are distilled into laws that possess trans-historical (that is, without change over time) validity. To learn from history means in this case to identify exemplary historical phenomena, to examine them as to their suitability for the formulation of universal laws, and to apply them in the present.

The critical type operates in opposition to the first two types. Here, counter-evidence and counter-narratives contest the immediate meanings that might be drawn from past phenomena for the present.

In the genetic type, the inevitability of historical change, even radical change, is acknowledged. Change is not only a threat, but also brings possibilities with it.

Rüsen’s typology originates from a reconstruction of modes of professional historiographical thinking including such diverse thinkers as Leopold von Ranke, Johann Gustav Droysen, Hayden White, or Frank Ankersmit. An investigation on modes of historical thinking of students in the Ruhr area showed the potential of this typology for empirical study (Rüsen et al., 1991; see also Seixas, 2005). Rüsen postulates a progressive logic for his typology, with development moving from the first (lowest) to the last (highest), but never fully abandoning the lower levels. Convincing empirical evidence for this, however, is still lacking.

Dimensions of Historical Consciousness

Hans-Jürgen Pandel (1987) advocates a concept of historical consciousness that takes society seriously. In his structural approach, historical consciousness is a mental structure consisting of seven intertwined forms of consciousness. These forms of consciousness can be divided into three basic (time, reality, historicity) and four social (identity, politics, economy-society, morality) categories (ibid., p. 132). The three basic categories constitute the domain of history. Each category is characterized via central descriptors: “yesterday,” “today,” and “tomorrow” (time), “real” and “fictitious” (reality), “static” and “changeable” (historicity), “we” and “you” (identity), “above” and “below” (politics), “poor” and “rich” (economy-society), “right” and “wrong” (morality). More detail follows (see also Sauer, 2009, p. 15).

Consciousness of time is important in order to discern between past, present, and future, and in order to put events into temporal order. Moreover, the distinction between physical and historical time is decisive: October 13, 1812 has twenty-four hours just the same as its “sibling” October 13, 2013. Nevertheless, the first date is meaningful for Canadian history as the date of the battle of Queenston Heights, whereas the latter—at least from today’s perspective—does not claim historical meaning for Canadian history.

Consciousness of reality is needed in order to identify “real” historical phenomena in contrast to fictitious phenomena, a difficult task. This is true in particular for children but of course not only for them. Procedures of historical validation are often extremely complex operations. Leopold von Ranke’s dictum that historians should tell “how it really was” (“wie es eigentlich gewesen”) is an easy postulate only on the surface level.

Consciousness of historicity means awareness of change. Groups of persons, segments of societies, societies as a whole, and the interplay among nations and supranational associations and organizations are subject to more or less radical and visible changes. Those changes can take place abruptly or with little notice by contemporaries, sometimes identified only in retrospect. Consciousness of identity points to people’s membership in social groups and their feelings of belonging to the group. Consciousness of identity as a competence includes the ability to realize and to reflect historically grounded feelings of belonging—both others’ and one’s own. Consciousness of politics refers to the idea that societies are structured by relations of power and the ability to identify and analyze such structures. Consciousness of economy-society relates to the ability to analyze social inequalities. Consciousness of morality is the competence to evaluate historical phenomena adequately. This is difficult insofar as today’s moral horizon may not be congruent with yesterday’s norms and values. A consciousness of morality implies a detailed reconstruction of yesterday’s norms and values without totally suspending today’s moral convictions, which would result in a dubious moral relativism.

Pandel’s concept has also been used as theoretical scaffold in empirical studies (e.g. El Darwich, 1991). Proposals to transform Pandel’s concept to better meet the challenges of a globalizing, power-differentiated world will be discussed after the presentation of a developmental approach below.

Historical Consciousness as a Psychological Concept

Developmental approaches to historical consciousness in Germany go as far back as 1932, the year in which Kurt Sonntag’s influential theoretical and empirical study into the development of historical consciousness was published (Sonntag, 1932). Our own much more recent efforts (Kölbl, 2009; Kölbl & Straub, 2001; Straub, 2005b) conceptualize the development of historical consciousness drawing on selected theoretical means originating from the tradition of genetic structuralism (Piaget, Kohlberg, Gilligan), sociohistorical psychology (Vygotsky, Luria, Leontiev), narrative psychology (Bruner, Sarbin), and theory of historiography and history education (Rüsen, Koselleck, Danto). Historical consciousness here is not conceptualized only by purely theoretical means but is also—partly—grounded in empirical analyses focusing on children and adolescents. This leads to a psychologically grounded concept of historical consciousness: Historical consciousness is understood as a mental structure or competence that underlies our dealing with collectively important aspects of past, present, and future. This competence articulates itself via narrative acts, i.e. telling and understanding historical narrations. The narrative mode of thinking can be regarded as specific for the domain of history differentiating it from other domains. Thus, a developmental psychology of historical consciousness may be regarded as one particular domain-specific cognitive developmental path (Carey, 1985). Historical consciousness here is, however, not reserved to historical thinking alone. Rather two forms of historical consciousness are differentiated, one scientific and the other existential, i.e. with historically mediated identities and interests.

If historical thinking is taken seriously then one also has to take into account the historicity of historical consciousness itself not only with regard to its contents but also to its very structure and functions. At least in “Western” societies historical consciousness often takes a specific modern form. What are the constituents of such a modern historical consciousness? An answer to this question includes the following: an awareness of contingency, otherness, and difference, a critical attitude towards a straightforward acceptance of the idea that history can teach us something (“historia magistra vitae”), a secularization of historical narratives, and, last but not least, a scientifically mediated dealing with history. The causes of modern historical consciousness can be seen in various interrelated processes, including the expansion of the means of telecommunication, increased migration, mass tourism, and repeated experiences of the unpredictability of events and radical social shifts. Modern historical consciousness is in part an answer to the challenges of a world turned global, insofar as it provides a historical consciousness suitable for intercultural communication. Modern historical consciousness is not a privilege of professional historians. Our empirical analyses have found it—in rudimentary forms—in youth and, to a lesser degree, in very young pupils (elementary school level). These analyses revolve around differentiations of the concept of time and history, categories on the structuring of history, concepts of historical development, forms, and foundations for the validation of historical statements, and types of historical understanding and explanation.

A World Turned Global, a World Full of Inequalities: Challenges for Historical Consciousness

A world turned global requires a modern historical consciousness, most importantly in respect to increased awareness of difference and otherness. Such an awareness may be both urgent and insufficient in a world where differences are used to exercise power and justify social, political, and economic inequalities. This is the forceful argument recently made in German history education by advocates of a revised concept of historical consciousness heavily informed by diversity studies (Crenshaw, 1989; McCall, 2005). In 2009, Barricelli and Sauer wrote:

An estimated third of all students in Germany today bear an intercultural background (with a growing tendency). All didactical [i.e. educational, C. K. & L. K.] research should duly take care of this undeniable diversity among pupils when conceiving empirical studies. Perspectives need to be broadened even more: What could history mean to highly heterogeneous student communities of different race, class and gender, what advantage could individuals and collectives...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Contributor Biographies
• Introduction: The New Shape of History Assessments
• PART I Goals of History Education: Models of Historical Cognition and Learning
• PART II Issues in Designing Assessments of Historical Thinking
• PART III Large-Scale Assessment of Historical Thinking
• PART IV Validity of Score Interpretations
• Index