Session Information
04 SES 03 F JS, Gender, bodies and risks
Joint Paper Session NW 04 and NW 08
Contribution
Introduction
My paper will mainly focus on presenting preliminary concepts, related to the methods which I am developing. Two of the concepts are history knowledge creation and classroom montage. I will also present some tentative results from a pilot study.
The role of emotions in history teaching concerning gender and sexuality is studied in my research. It all begins and ends in the present where the scene for the study is the classroom in upper secondary school. One starting point is that teaching and learning together form a situated cultural expression (Barton, 2008, Olofsson, 2010. Almqvist et al 2008, 2011). Both teachers and their students contribute in the creation of historical knowledge. From this perspective I suggest the use of the term history knowledge creation.
Aim and research questions
The aim is to investigate the role emotions have in history knowledge creation concerning gender and sexuality. Preliminary research questions are:
How do teachers and their students create historical knowledge about gender and sexuality, what fragments of discourses are visible in the process and how do these discourses relate to each other?
What knowledge is created in the classroom when gender and sexuality is on the agenda? What emotions are manifested in the process and what role do they play in the creation of history knowledge?
Theory and perspective
The theoretical framework of the study is characterized by pluralism. In the analysis, I utilize theories of gender (Scott, 1986), theories of emotion (Scheer 2012) as well as discourse analysis (Blommaert, 2005). In addition, my starting point is based on historical didactic theories within historical awareness (Jensen,1997) and historical thinking (Barton & Levstik, 2004).
A review of research in fields such as history didactics (Levstik & Groth, 2002, Kohlmeier 2006, Nordgren, 2006, Lozic, 2010, Olofsson, 2010, Nygren et al, 2014, Alvén, 2017) cultural science (Rosén, 2014), ethnographic (Lundgren, 2000) pedagogical-didactic (Holm, 2008) and educational historical research (Johansson, 2000) has been helpful in finding tools for analysis. Due to the first research question I am working on a model based on three perspectives. Firstly, there is the teaching content which the students are confronted with. Further, used teaching methods and resources matter together with communication and interaction in the classroom but also with prevailing school habitus. Finally, the third tool covers the cultural, gender and social contexts that students represent from outside the school environment.
I use a preliminary concept for describing the mentioned model, which I call classroom montage. Montage comes from film theory. According to Eisenstein's dialectical approach, meaning is not based on the fact that different units in a feature (a montage) are linked to each other. Instead, meaning rises because the units are in conflict with each other (Eisenstein, 2004). In classrooms there are a number of variables that also collide when teaching is in progress, why I suggest using classroom montage as a concept in my research.
Due to the second question I use research within sociology (Loseke, 2009), history (Scheer, 2012, Backman Prytz, 2014)) and history didactics (Deldén, 2017) developing a model for analysing how emotions affects the creation of history knowledge creation about gender and sexuality. I am still working on finding a koncept for this tool.
Method
Methods, data and preliminary findings Design study methodology is suitable for this research, since it provides the opportunity to conduct research in real life classroom situations. The empirical data will be collected by mixed methods during case studies in classrooms (Robson & McCartan 2016) in upper secondary school. The data will consist of observation notes and data from interviews and also written statements from the participants. In order to activate students’ historical empathy (Barton & Levstik, 2004, Nygren et al, 2014, Endacott & Brooks, 2018) digitized court records will be used in the teaching. They contain reports from sexual crime cases from the early modern era in Sweden and are available in the database Gender and Work (Uppsala University, GaW). An analysis of a pilot study from a historical didactic perspective shows that historical empathy as judging and as compassion was expressed in students writings. Contextualization turned out to be a challenge. Earlier research confirm these results (Brooks, 2011, Nygren, 2016) From a gender perspective together with a historical emotional research and discourse analysis (Scott, 1986, Blommaert, 2005, Scheer, 2012), the pilot also indicates that the students’ notions of the past in terms of what is considered to be male and female, but also their view of relationships and sexuality are reflected. In addition, their answers contain norms and values forming the basis for the perception and construction of gender and sexuality. The students linked different emotions and actions to different gender: women were crying while men were angry. Men left home while women stayed. But, the students perceived frustration and impatience among both men and women, often related to poverty. When it came to men, the perception was that it had to do with being without work. In the case of the women, the feelings were understood to relate to being abandoned by a previously providing husband. One can see gender relations with women subordinated under men in the short stories. To explain the students perceived gender relations, the stories are rich of emotions which drives the creation of history knowledge about gender and sexuality.
Expected Outcomes
Conclusion This study will develop concepts such as history knowledge creation and classroom montage and also tools for analysing the role of emotions in history teaching about gender and sexuality. It may be motivated from a subject education and a historical perspective, as it may provide knowledge about what and how student learn and about the status of the subject history. My study will also contribute to the creation of a scientific discourse on history teaching within gender and sexuality in relation to emotions.
References
Almqvist, Jonas et al (2008) ”Pragmatiska studier av meningsskapande, Utbildning och demokrati Alvén, Fredrik (2017) Tänka rätt och tycka lämpligt Backman Prytz, Sara (2014) Borgerlighetens döttrar och söner ca. 1880-1930. Barton, Keith C. (2008): “A sociocultural perspective on children's understanding of historical change” Barton, Keith C & Levstik, Linda (2004) Teaching History for the Common Good Blommaert, Jan (2005) Discourse. A Critical Introduction Brooks, Sarah (2011) ”Historical Empathy as Perspective Recognition and Care in One Secondary Social Studies Classroom”, Theory & Research in Social Education, 39:2, Eisenstein, Sergej (2004) ”Bortom filmbilden” i Konst och film D. 1 Texter före 1970, red. Trond Lundemo Deldén, Maria (2017) Perspektiv på historiefilmslitteracitet Endacott, Jason L & Brooks, Sara (2018) ”Historical Empathy”, The Wiley International Handbook Holm, Ann-Sofie (2008) Relationer i skolan : en studie av femininiteter och maskuliniteter i år 9 Jensen, Bernard Eric (1997) ”Historiemedvetande - begreppsanalys, samhällsteori och didaktik”, Historiedidaktik Johansson, Ulla, (2000) Normalitet, kön och klass : liv och lärande i svenska läroverk 1927-1960 Kohlmeier, Jada (2006) ”“Couldn’t She Just Leave?”: The Relationship Between Consistently Using Class Discussions and the Development of Historical Empathy in a 9Th Grade World History Course”. Theory & Research in Social Education Levstik, Linda S., och Jeanette Groth (2002) ”“Scary Thing, Being An Eighth Grader”. Exploring Gender and Sexuality in a Middle School U.S. History Unit”. Theory & Research in Social Education Lundgren, Anna Sofia (2000) Tre år i g: perspektiv på kropp och kön i skolan Lozic, Vanja (2010) I historiekanons skugga Loseke, Donileen R (2009) ”EXAMINING EMOTION AS DISCOURSE: Emotion Codes and Presidential Speeches Justifying War”, The Sociological Quarterly Nordgren, Kenneth (2006) Vems är historien? Historia som medvetande, kultur och handling i det mångkulturella Sverige Nygren, Thomas et al, 2014, “Digitala primärkällor i historieundervisningen: en utmaning för elevers historiska tänkande och historiska empati”, Nordidactica Nygren, Thomas, (2016) Thinking and caring about indigenous peoples’ human rights: Swedish students writing history beyond scholarly debate”, Journal of Peace Education Olofsson, Hans, (2010) Fatta historia. En explorativ fallstudie om historieundervisning och historiebruk i en högstadieklass Scott, Joan W (1986) ”Gender : a useful category of historical analysis”, The American historical review Robson, Colin, och Kieran McCartan (2016) Real world research Rosén, Ulla (2014) ”Undervisning och genus”, Blickar: kulturvetenskapliga perspektiv på utbildning red. Niklas Ammert, Ulla Rosén & Jonas Svensson Scheer, Monique, 2012 “Are emotions a kind of practice”, History and Theory, Volume 51 Uppsala University, “Gender and work” https://gaw.hist.uu.se/
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