Content uploaded by Kaya Yilmaz
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Kaya Yilmaz
Content may be subject to copyright.
Historical
Empathy and Its Implications for
Classroom
Practices in Schools
Kaya Yilmaz
Marmara
University,
Istanbul, Turkey
MANY
RESEARCH
STUDIES
have shown how students engage with
historical documents, make sense of the past, and develop historical un-
derstanding to construct their own historical knowledge. Some of these
studies have dealt specifically with empathy. I define empathy or historical
imagination as the ability to see and judge the past in its own terms by
trying to understand the mentality, frames of reference, beliefs, values,
intentions, and actions of historical agents using a variety of historical
evidence. Empathy is the skill to re-enact the thought of a historical agent
in one's mind or the ability to view the world as it was seen by the people
in the past without imposing today's values on the past. This article aims
to synthesize the scholarly literature about empathy, drawing on the works
of both past and recent scholarship in history education. It will show how
educational researchers and disciplinary historians have viewed, discussed,
and studied the notion of historical empathy at both the theoretical and
the empirical levels. It will first pinpoint the conceptual issues surround-
ing the term and then move on to explain the efforts to translate the term
from theory into practice.
Debates about the Meaning of the Term
The discussion must begin by examining efforts to define the notion of
The
History Teacher Volutne 40 Nutnber 3 May 2007 © Kaya Yilrtiaz
332 Kaya Yilmaz
historical empathy with its different dimensions. Depending on where the
term is used, it takes on quite different meanings. Because empathy is as-
sumed
to
purport
the
affective domain of human skills in people's everyday
use,
"too commonly, people misunderstand historical empathy as sympathy
or kind of appreciative sentiment. This understanding of empathy means
developing a positive attitude or feeling toward an individual, event, or
situation."' Within the scholarly community, the term is assigned diverse
meanings by different disciplines. For instance, in the field of psychology
empathy is defined in seventeen separate ways.^ Whether any of die mean-
ings that psychologists assign to empathy can be applicable to the study
of history is discussed by education researchers. It is argued that all of
psychologists' assigned meanings of the term empathy are of limited use
in history in that there is a conceptual difference between historians' and
psychologists' intended use of the term. While historians are concerned
with understanding the past or the distance between the past and present,
psychologists are concerned with the present world, and thus are able to
establish a reciprocal context for a contemporary relationship.^
For
historians,
empathy refers
to
a combination of intellectual and imagi-
native capacity.'' The term sometimes
is
used as a synonym for "perspective
taking."^ Making a connection between historical empathy and historical
understanding. Lee and Ashby define the term as "the ability to see and
entertain as conditionally appropriate, connections between intentions, cir-
cumstances, and actions, and to see how any particular perspective would
actually have affected actions in particular circumstances."^ According to
Barton, historical empathy is the skill to recognize how people in the past
viewed their circumstances, evaluated their
opinions,
made decisions, and
how their perceptions were shaped by their values, beliefs, and attitudes.''
Likewise, Downey, who prefers the term "perspective taking" to the term
historical empathy, defines the term as the ability to understand historical
characters' irames of reference on the basis of historical facts and events
without trying to identify or sympathize with their feelings.^
Viewing empathy as a second-order, structural, and metahistorical con-
cept. Lee states that "empathy tends to be used to mean the explanation
either of action
itself,
or of the ideas, beliefs and values that lie behind
actions and social institutions."' VanSledright explains historical empathy
in terms of what it is not: "Empathy does not take the form of a simple
and temporary propensity 'to feel like' or 'walk in the shoes of those
who lived before us 'as though they were us.' Rather historical empathy
demands considerable thoughtful effort."'" In the National Standards for
history, empathy is defined as "the ability to describe the past through the
eyes and experiences of those who were there, as revealed through their
literature, art, artifacts, and the like, and to avoid 'present-mindedness,'
Historical Empathy and Its Implications 333
judging the past solely in terms of the norms and values of today.""
The Nature and Characteristic Features of Historical Empathy
Education researchers have usually explained the nature of historical
empathy within the context of historical inquiry and historical understand-
ing.
They have referred to and made use of disciplinary history perspective
in elucidating the characteristic features of historical empathy. That
is,
their
frames of reference with respect to historical empathy are generally based
on disciplinary history. For instance, Foster has claimed that historical
empathy lies at the core of historical inquiry.'^ Similarly, Davis has argued,
"Empathy constitutes one of the essential elements of historical think-
ing and rigorous historical inquiry that result in deepened understanding
within context. For the most part, it is intellectual in nature, but certainly
it may include emotional dimensions."'^ Asserting that historical empathy
should not be based simply on exercises in imagination, overidentifica-
tion, or sympathy, Foster and Yeager state, "The development of histori-
cal empathy in students is a considered and active process, embedded in
the historical method."'"* Taking into account the nature, processes, and
purposes of disciplinary history and historical inquiry within the context
of secondary school classrooms, Foster has identified six characteristics
or components of historical empathy in terms of what empathy involves
or does not involve. His points are as follows. Historical empathy:
• does not involve imagination, identification, or sympathy,
• involves understanding people's actions in the past,
• involves a through appreciation of historical context,
• demands multiple forms of evidence and perspective,
• requires students to examine their own perspectives,
• encourages well-grounded but tentative conclusions.'^
What Does It Take to Engage in Historical Empathy?
Engaging in historical empathy is both demanding and challenging for
students even at the knowledge level, the lowest rank of educational objec-
tives.
First of all, students must know more rather than fewer historical
facts,
concepts, and interpretations
to
practice empathy.'^ Likewise, in order
to successfully employ and develop historical empathy, students must:
• access authentic historical sources, engaging in critical examina-
tion of those sources and understanding the nature of historical
conclusions,"
• have a balance of imaginative speculation and methodical investi-
gation,'*
• relive the thoughts of past individuals through the heuristic of
334 Kaya Yilmaz
contextualization,''
• "examine, appreciate, and understand the perspectives of people in
the past and to render them intelligible to contemporary minds,"^*'
• make reasoned evidential reconstruction in addition to taking a
position to reconstruct a set of beliefs, values, goals, and attendant
feelings that historical agents had,^'
• engage in sustained effort and thoughtful strategy to suspend their
present world views when examining the past in order to avoid a
presentist understanding of the past, i.e., understanding the past
events on their own terms without judging them through our con-
temporary
Theory Into Practice:
Practical Suggestions for Exercising Empathy
In addition to approaching the notion of historical empathy from a theo-
retical perspective, scholars also have dealt with the term at the empirical
level. They have provided suggestions about how the history teacher can
benefit from historical empathy by employing it as a teaching tool in the
classroom. According to Portal, it takes five steps for students to be able to
engage in empathy and develop their perspective taking skills. To practice
historical empathy, students should be able to:
1) project their own thoughts and feelings into a particular historical
situation,
2) distinguish the historical period under study from their own,
3) employ a variety of reference materials and contemporary sources
related to the topic they are studying,
4) present a particular person or situation in a way that extends beyond
the merely typical to encompass the unique circumstances of
the
case,
5) make use of
the
two-sided narrative to illustrate the role of
inadequately empathic relationship between the historical participants
in giving rise to misunderstanding, conflict, or tragedy.^^
Concerned with how to translate the constructs of historical empathy
into meaningful classroom practices, Foster also has offered valuable sug-
gestions for teachers of
history.
He recommended that teachers:
• focus on a puzzling and paradoxical situation in the past while prac-
ticing empathy exercises in order to initiate curiosity among students
and to help them distinguish the remote past period from the recent
past,
• provide students with some knowledge of historical context and
chronology before delving deeply into the selected topic of study,
• introduce a wide range of primary and secondary sources to students,
depending on the cognitive and developmental levels of students.
Historical Empathy and Its Implications 335
• encourage students to ask critical questions of sources to help avoid
the risk of taking any sources at face value,
• scaffold and build up students' learning to help them develop dispo-
sitions to ask more complex and thought-provoking questions,
• urge students to ask questions of themselves when examining his-
torical documents,
• encourage students to identify sources and give reasons why the
sources they selected are most useful in shedding light on past
events,
• help students be wary of
the
tentativeness of their final conclusions
and interpretations with which others might disagree,
• recognize that engaging students in meaningful empathy inquiry
takes substantial classroom time, energy, effort, and resources,
and understand that the selection of proper materials, asking prob-
ing questions, stimulating thoughtful investigation, leading the class
discussion, and maintaining the momentum of inquiry are central
to the successful implementation of historical empathy exercises in
classrooms.^''
Likewise, history teachers are suggested to evaluate students' engage-
ment with historical empathy through the following four
criteria.
Students
must: 1) indicate that the past is different from the present and a historical
outcome is specific to time and place, 2) explain the perspectives they
take and their consequences for the historical participants involved, 3)
develop factually accurate perspectives on the basis of historical evidence,
and finally, 4) judge whether the student is demonstrating the ability to
distinguish between past perspectives and shift skillfully from one per-
spective to another.^'
Conclusion
By discussing the divergent and convergent perspectives on the term
empathy, I have tried to document the scholarly efforts to define, con-
ceptualize, and clarify the meaning, nature, and characteristic features of
the notion of historical empathy. A review of literature clearly shows that
scholars have not yet come to terms with each other about the definition
of the term. Empathy still stands as a problematic and ambiguous term, so
any given definition of empathy is subject to dispute.^* As Davis confessed,
even those researchers who, like him, have attempted to consider empathy
in history education do not know enough about it and are doing fiirther
research.^' These efforts should be appreciated because they have been
contributing to the literature in history teaching and learning by expand-
ing our understanding of how and to what extent students can engage in
336 Kaya Yilmaz
historical thinking and reasoning. In light of this review of literature, it
is safe to say that the first and most important task before social studies
educators is not just to keep refining the precise definition of the term but
also trying to come to terms with the conceptual implications of the term.
Clearer delineation of the components of historical empathy is needed. If
a cumulative knowledge base about historical empathy is to be built, an
agreed-upon definition of
the
term must emerge from diverse studies. To
facilitate that
process,
educational researchers can examine historiography
in order
to
see how different schools of historical thought define and explain
the term. Since educational researchers' neglect of historiography is one
of the reasons for the shortcomings of the research on history education, I
would suggest that new studies be conducted not only on historical empathy
but also on the teaching and leaming of history by drawing sufficiently on
the implications of historiography for the study of school history.
Notes
1.
O. L.
Davis, Jr.,
"In
Pursuit
of
Historical Empathy,"
in
Historical Em-
pathy and Perspective
Taking
in the Social Studies, ed. O. L. Davis, Elizabeth A.
Yeager,
and
Stuart J. Foster (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001),
3.
2.
Stuart
J.
Foster, "Historical Empathy in Theory and
Practice:
Some Final
Thoughts," in Historical Empathy and Perspective Taking in the Social Studies,
ed. O. L. Davis, Elizabeth
A.
Yeager, and Stuart
J.
Foster (Lanham,
MD:
Rowman
and Littlefield, 2001),
167.
3.
Foster, "Historical Empathy;" Denis Shelmit, "Adolescent Ideas About
Evidence and Methodology in History," in
The
History of Curriculum for
Teach-
ers,
ed.
Christopher Portal (London: Palmer Press, 1987),"
and
Peter Knight,
"Empathy: Concept, Confusion,
and
Consequences
in a
National Curriculum,"
Oxford Review of Education 15 (1989):
44.
4.
Foster, "Historical Empathy;"
and
Rosalyn Ashby
and
Peter
Lee,
"Children's Concepts of Empathy and Understanding in History,"
in
The
History
Curriculum for
Teachers,
ed.
Christopher Portal (London: Palmer Press, 1987),
62-88.
5.
Keith
C.
Barton,
"Did the
Evil Just
Run Out of
Justice? Historical
Perspective Taking Among Elementary Students," paper presented
at
the annual
meeting
of
the
American Educational Research Association, New York,
1996.
6. Peter
J. Lee and
Rosalyn Ashby, "Empathy, Perspective Taking,
and
Rational Understanding,"
in
Historical Empathy and Perspective Taking in
the
Social
Studies,
ed. O. L. Davis, Elizabeth
A.
Yeager, and Stuart
J.
Foster (Lanham,
MD:
Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), 25.
7.
Barton,
4.
8. Matthew
T.
Downey, "Perspective Taking and Historical
Thinking:
Do-
ing History
in a
Fifth-Grade Classroom," paper presented
at
the annual meeting
Historical Empathy and Its Implications 337
of
the
American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, 1995.
9. Peter Lee, "'Walking Backwards into Tomorrow:' Historical Conscious-
ness and Understanding History," paper presented at annual meeting of American
Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 2002.
10.
Bruce
A.
VanSledright, "From Emphatic Regard to Self Understanding:
Impositionality, Empathy, and Historical Contextualization," in Historical Em-
pathy and Perspective
Talcing
in the Social Studies, ed. O. L. Davis, Elizabeth A.
Yeager, and Stuart J. Foster (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), 55.
11.
National Center for History in the Schools, The National Standards for
History, <http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards> (accessed
10
April 2004).
12.
Foster, 175.
13.
Davis, 3.
14.
Elizabeth A. Yeager, and Stuart J. Foster, "The Roles of Empathy in
the Development of Historical Understanding," International Journal of Social
Education 13 {199S): 1-7.
15.
Foster, 169-175.
16.
Davis, 6.
17.
K. L. Riley, "Historical Empathy and the Holocaust: Theory into
?rsic-
t\ce,"
International Journal of Social Education 13 (1998): 32-42.
18.
Christopher Portal, "Empathy as an Objective for History Teaching," in
The
History of Curriculum for
Teachers,
ed. Christopher Portal (London: Palmer
Press,
1987), 83-133.
19.
Mimi H. Lee, "Promoting Historical Inquiry Using Secondary Sources:
Exploring the Promise and Possibilities in New Genres of Historical Writing,"
paper presented at the annual meeting of American Educational Research As-
sociation, San Diego, 2004.
20.
Foster, 175.
21.
Ashby and Lee, 63.
22.
Lee and Ashby, 21-50; Yeager, and Foster, 1-7.
23.
Portal, 83-133.
24.
Foster, 175-178.
25.
Downey.
26.
Foster, 169.
27.
Davis, 10.
