Just finished watching Jillian Turner's Track Talk about how to incorporate historiography into classes starting at a middle school level. One of the major takeaways for me was that most of us social studies teachers are probably already doing this type of work in our classrooms. However, we are not explicitly naming it. We should! I like the suggestion of using debate as a way to critically examine different perspectives. I did have a question for you, Jillian Turner ...can you give me some examples of the names you use for the "hats" that you discussed in your video? I wasn't quite sure if you were making a reference to disciplines or if you used specific names for these perspectives.

Hi Meaghan Mihalic ,

I tend to use whatever terms academics use for schools of history e.g feminist, post colonial or marxist. I have a few great reference books that I rely on to explain each approach to students. 'The houses of history' by Green & Troup is 20 years old but so clear and well written. 'A concise history of history' by Daniel Woolf is more recent and is far less Eurocentric, covering ways of constructing history across every continent. It's also a fascinating read, I'd highly recommend it, it's really enriched my teaching on historiography!

Hi Meaghan Mihalic ,

I tend to use whatever terms academics use for schools of history e.g feminist, post colonial or marxist. I have a few great reference books that I rely on to explain each approach to students. 'The houses of history' by Green & Troup is 20 years old but so clear and well written. 'A concise history of history' by Daniel Woolf is more recent and is far less Eurocentric, covering ways of constructing history across every continent. It's also a fascinating read, I'd highly recommend it, it's really enriched my teaching on historiography!

That completely makes sense! It reminds me of the idea presented in another Track Talk by Beth Krasemann. When she mentioned assessing at the end of inquiry-based learning, one idea was to have students write a diary or create some type of document showing the perspective of a specific person. I think this ties in nicely with your 'hats' idea. Having the context to understand perspectives and lenses plays a really critical role in analyzing history and drawing conclusions. Recognizing these points of view is critical to authentic comprehension. Thanks for clarifying, and I appreciate the recommendations. I am looking into them as we speak!