Abstracts
Abstract
Historical empathy involves a process of attempting to understand the thoughts, feelings, experiences, decisions, and actions of people from the past within specific historical contexts. Although historical empathy has been a rich area of study in history education for several decades, this research has largely taken place outside of Canada. In this article, I argue that greater attention should be paid to historical empathy in Canadian history education research and curriculum because it can support learning outcomes related to historical thinking and historical consciousness, citizenship, and decolonizing and anti-racist approaches to history education. Drawing from and commenting on other scholarship, I present a cognitive-affective theory of historical empathy which includes five elements: (1) evidence and contextualization, (2) informed historical imagination, (3) historical perspectives, (4) ethical judgements, and (5) caring. Through exploring each element and some pedagogical considerations for educators, I emphasize the affective dimensions of history to centre their importance for history education in Canada.
Keywords:
- historical empathy,
- history education,
- affective dimensions,
- historical thinking,
- citizenship education
Résumé
L’empathie historique est un processus qui cherche à comprendre les pensées, les sentiments, les expériences, les décisions et les actions des personnes du passé dans des contextes historiques précis. L’empathie historique est un champ d’études riche dans le domaine de l’enseignement de l’histoire depuis plusieurs décennies, mais ces recherches ont surtout eu lieu à l’extérieur du contexte canadien. Dans cet article, je soutiens qu’une plus grande attention devrait être accordée à l’empathie historique dans la recherche et dans les programmes d’enseignement de l’histoire au Canada, car elle peut soutenir les résultats d’apprentissages liés à la réflexion historique, à la conscience historique, à la citoyenneté et aux approches décolonisatrices et antiracistes de l’enseignement de l’histoire. En m’inspirant et en commentant d’autres études, je présente une théorie cognitive affective de l’empathie historique qui comprend cinq éléments : (1) la preuve et la contextualisation ; (2) l’imagination historique informée ; (3) les perspectives historiques ; (4) les jugements éthiques ; et (5) la sollicitude. En explorant chacun de ces éléments et certaines considérations pédagogiques pour les éducateurs, cet article met l’accent sur les dimensions affectives de l’histoire afin de centrer leur importance pour l’enseignement de l’histoire au Canada.
Mots-clés :
- l’empathie historique,
- cours d’histoire,
- dimensions affectives,
- réflexion historique,
- éducation à la citoyenneté
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