Historical Consciousness and Ethnicity: How Signifying the Past Influences the Fluctuations in Ethnic Boundary Maintenance

Theorists tend to limit \u27history\u27s\u27 role in the dynamics of ethnicity to that generally played by collective memory. By bringing the notion of historical consciousness to the fore, new possibilities may, however, emerge for discerning how history, as one cultural mode of remembering among many others, impacts both ethnicity delineations and fluctuations in boundary maintenance. In encapsulating the many forms of commemoration as well as the different dimensions of historical thinking, the contribution of historical consciousness accordingly lies on how group members historicize temporal change for moral orientation in time. By likewise signifying past events for negotiating their ethnicity and agency toward the \u27significant Other\u27, social actors gate-keep group boundaries. And, depending on their capacity and willingness to recognize the \u27significant Other\u27s\u27 moral and historical agency in the flow of time, they can transform group delineations and render ethnic boundaries more porous. Key Words: Historical Consciousness; Ethnicity; Group Boundaries; Boundary Maintenance; Boundary Fluctuations; Collective Memory; Disciplinary History; Moral and Historical Agency

L’enseignement au Québec et en France des questions controversées en histoire : tensions entre politique du passé et politique de la reconnaissance dans les curricula

Cet article traite de l’expression des tensions entre la politique du passé et la politique de la reconnaissance dans l’enseignement des questions controversées en histoire au Québec et en France. L’histoire à enseigner y a connu d’importantes évolutions. Ces évolutions concernent la conception même de l’histoire et son rôle dans la société. Elles sont porteuses de tensions quant à ce qui est légitime pour « dire/faire l’histoire », donc à la part de récit commun et de critique ou à la part de cohésion des groupes nationaux pluriculturels et de transmission de mémoires, ainsi que d’expériences historiques spécifiques.This article examines the expression of tensions between the policy of the past and the policy of recognition in teaching controversial historical questions in Québec and France. History teaching has evolved considerably. These developments concern the very concept of history and its role in society. They cause tensions about what is legitimate for the “telling/making” of history, hence for the common history and criticism or cohesion shared by national pluricultural groups that transmit memories and specific historical experiences.Este artículo aborda la manifestación de las tensiones entre la política del pasado y la política del reconocimiento de la enseñanza de cuestiones controvertidas en la historia en Quebec y en Francia. La historia que se enseña ha conocido importantes evoluciones. Dichas evoluciones conciernen la concepción misma de la historia y su rol en la sociedad. Dichas transformación portan tensiones de lo que es legitimo para « decir/hacer la historia » generadas por el relato común y por la crítica, por la cohesión de grupos nacionales pluriculturales y la transmisión de memorias y de experiencias históricas específicas

History Teaching and Narrative Tools

Based on an analysis of five English-speaking students’ written narratives on Quebec’s history, this article proposes a pedagogical tool for better integrating and vitalizing these students’ language community in Quebec. Despite tendencies of reliance and opposition emerging from their historical consciousness, these students do not employ clearly articulated and coherent English-speaking storylines for positioning themselves as a minority group. To this end, I suggest the creation of schematic narrative templates of English-speaking Quebec’s collective historical experiences for offering students workable springboards to develop personal narratives of belonging, while taking Francophone concerns of linguistic and cultural fragility into account.À partir d’une analyse des récits sur l’histoire du Québec de cinq jeunes Anglo-québécois, cet article propose un outil pédagogique pour intégrer la minorité anglophone et renforcer sa vitalité au sein de la société québécoise. Malgré l’émergence de tendances qui révèlent une conscience historique, telles que la dépendance et l’opposition, ces jeunes n’utilisent pas un contre-récit articulé et cohérent pour se positionner en tant que minorité. Nous proposons la création de trames historiales schématiques des expériences collectives anglophones pour aider ces jeunes à construire leurs propres récits d’appartenance, tout en tenant compte de la fragilité linguistique et culturelle des Franco-québécois

Historical consciousness and metaphor: Charting new directions for grasping human historical sense-making patterns for knowing and acting in time

In adding on to narrative as one dominant means of studying and analysing expressions of historical consciousness, this paper attempts to explicate two potential roles of metaphor for fully capturing human historical sense making patterns as they pertain to living life. By bringing together cognitivist viewpoints regarding conceptual metaphors and their underlying mappings of core life concepts with more literary uses of metaphor as a central means of re-describing reality through paranarrative readings of textual extracts, a potentially novel way of looking at the operations of historical consciousness emerges – one where conventionalized conceptual metaphors underlying the logic of history seem to embed the conditions under which individuals either rely on pre-given significations of the past for knowing and acting in time, or rather seek plausible-like meanings instead. The author illustrates his ideas through an analysis of Milan Kundera’s embellished commentary on the ironies regarding the politics of remembering and forgetting during Czechoslovakia’s communist period in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. In recognizing the experimental nature of his endeavour, the author nonetheless calls for further exploration and empirical research, particularly with real world human participants, to develop metaphor as a respected medium of research in the area of historical consciousness

History Teaching and Narrative Tools : Towards Integrating English-Speaking Youth into Quebec’s Social Fabric

Based on an analysis of five English-speaking students’ written narratives on Quebec’s history, this article proposes a pedagogical tool for better integrating and vitalizing these students’ language community in Quebec. Despite tendencies of reliance and opposition emerging from their historical consciousness, these students do not employ clearly articulated and coherent English-speaking storylines for positioning themselves as a minority group. To this end, I suggest the creation of schematic narrative templates of English-speaking Quebec’s collective historical experiences for offering students workable springboards to develop personal narratives of belonging, while taking Francophone concerns of linguistic and cultural fragility into account.À partir d’une analyse des récits sur l’histoire du Québec de cinq jeunes Anglo-québécois, cet article propose un outil pédagogique pour intégrer la minorité anglophone et renforcer sa vitalité au sein de la société québécoise. Malgré l’émergence de tendances qui révèlent une conscience historique, telles que la dépendance et l’opposition, ces jeunes n’utilisent pas un contre-récit articulé et cohérent pour se positionner en tant que minorité. Nous proposons la création de trames historiales schématiques des expériences collectives anglophones pour aider ces jeunes à construire leurs propres récits d’appartenance, tout en tenant compte de la fragilité linguistique et culturelle des Franco-québécois

Harmonizing Two of History Teaching’s Main Social Functions: Franco-Québécois History Teachers and Their Predispositions to Catering to Narrative Diversity

This article presents the Quebec ministry of education’s (MELS) strategy for diversifying the national historical narrative that is transmitted in the province’s History and Citizenship Education program as well as the manner in which Francophone national history teachers put this strategy into practice. In bringing research on their social representations and historical consciousness together, this paper looks at some of the main challenges that these teachers face when specifically harmonizing two of history teaching’s central social functions for catering to narrative diversity. When seeking to adequately balance the transmission of a national identity reference framework with the development of autonomous critical thinking skills, it becomes clear that these teachers’ general quest for positivist-type, true and objective visions of the past as well as their overall attachment to the main markers of their group’s collective memory for knowing and acting Québécois impede them from fully embracing the diversification of the province’s historical narrative. The article ends by raising some important questions regarding the relevance of assisting teachers to authentically develop their own voice and vision for harmonizing the two aforementioned functions of history teaching and for being answerable to the decisions they make when articulating and acting upon such beliefs in class

History Is a Verb: We Learn It Best When We Are Doing It: French and English Canadian Prospective Teachers and History

This article presents the results of a Canadian study of prospective history teachers conducted in 2012-2013. Using an online questionnaire to assess a broad range of questions pertaining to their knowledge of history, their trust in historical sources, their experiences in high school and university classes, and their views about school history, it offers new empirical evidence on how the growing generation of Canadian teachers are prepared for the teaching profession. Implications of this study for teacher education and practice teaching are also presented.Este artigo apresenta os resultados de um estudo canadense sobre futuros professores de história, realizado entre 2012 e 2013. O estudo oferece novas evidências empíricas sobre a maneira em que a nova geração de professores canadenses está sendo preparada profissionalmente, utilizando um questionário on-line para avaliar uma série de perguntas relacionadas com seus conhecimentos de história, sua confiança nas fontes históricas, suas experiências em sala de aula do ensino médio e universitário, e suas opiniões sobre a história que se ensina nos colégios. O artigo também apresenta as implicações desse estudo para a formação dos professores e sua prática docente.Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio canadiense sobre futuros profesores de historia realizado entre 2012 y 2013. El estudio ofrece nuevas evidencias empíricas sobre la manera en que la nueva generación de profesores canadienses se está preparando profesionalmente, utilizando un cuestionario en línea para evaluar una amplia gama de preguntas relacionadas con sus conocimientos de historia, su confianza en las fuentes históricas, sus experiencias en clases a nivel secundario y universitario, y sus opiniones sobre la historia que se enseña en los colegios. El artículo también presenta las implicaciones de este estudio para la formación de los profesores y su práctica docente

“History is a Verb: We Learn it Best When We are Doing it!”: French and English Canadian Prospective Teachers and History

This article presents the results of a Canadian study of prospective history teachers conducted in 2012-2013. Using an online questionnaire to assess a broad range of questions pertaining to their knowledge of history, their trust in historical sources, their experiences in high school and university classes, and their views about school history, it offers new empirical evidence on how the growing generation of Canadian teachers are prepared for the teaching profession. Implications of this study for teacher education and practice teaching are also presented

History teachers and historical knowledge in Quebec and Sweden: Epistemic beliefs in distinguishing the past from history and its teaching

This article looks at upper secondary school history teachers’ understandings of how historical knowledge is constructed and at the impact this might have on their classroom practice. The article has two objectives: (1) to examine how teachers view the relationship between the past and history – as a basic entry point peek into their epistemic thinking; and (2) to explore their reflexiveness regarding epistemic issues and what their view might mean for their perspectives and their teaching of history, and by extension, whether they see themselves as being political in the process or not. As part of an international, comparative study on history teachers and their epistemic positioning in the teaching of rival histories, we use a mixed-methods approach to present empirical data from Quebec and Sweden. Forming a cross-cultural dialogue, this comparative focus permits us to identify and discuss nuances that emerge in teachers’ thinking in two completely different societies that nevertheless share similar democratic and political outlooks when it comes to the teaching of school history. In discussing the relationship between the past and history, it appears that teachers have different understandings of what historical knowledge is, how it is constructed, and the implications these meanings have for their practice. The findings demonstrate that there is a main difference and an important similarity between both sites. The difference is one where Swedish teachers are more inclined to make a clear distinction between the past and history, than their Quebecois counterparts who tend to be less prone to making this distinction clear. The similarity, in turn, refers to a majority of participants who are located in between these two extremities – objectivist and critical – and who demonstrate a case of epistemic “wobbling”. In describing the reasons for this difference, namely Quebec’s overt quest for nation-building among its various historical communities, the political nature of history teaching comes to light. In digging deeper in this difference to better qualify the emergent wobbling, the results furthermore illustrate a strong connection between criticality and reflexivity in teachers’ thinking and practice. More specifically, those who clearly distinguish between the past and history demonstrate an ability to account for history’s subjectiveness and are therefore more attuned to questioning their own role in the whole teaching process