Past Looking: Using Arts as Historical Evidence in Teaching History

Abstract

This is a comparative case study of how three high school history teachers in the U.S.A. use art in their practice. The following research question was investigated: How do secondary history teachers incorporate the arts—paintings, music, poems, novels, and films—in their teaching of history and why? Data were collected from three sources: interviews, observations, and classroom materials. Grounded theory was utilized to analyze the data. Findings suggest these teachers use the arts as historical evidence roughly for three purposes: First, to teach the spirit of an age; second, to teach the history of ordinary people invisible in official historical records; and third, to teach, both with and without art, the process of writing history. Two of the three teachers, however, failed to teach historical thinking skills through art.

Citation

Suh, Y. (2013), "Past Looking: Using Arts as Historical Evidence in Teaching History", Social Studies Research and Practice, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 135-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-01-2013-B0010