Teacher Conceptions of History Revisited: Ideology, Curriculum, and Student Belief

Abstract

The central purpose of this exploratory investigation is to describe and analyze the teaching of history in five classrooms, each representing one of five typologies developed earlier, the storyteller, scientific historian, relativist/reformer, cosmic philosopher, and eclectic (Evans, 1989b). The study focuses on the effects of each teacher's conceptions of history on the transmitted curriculum and on student beliefs. Data collection included interviews with teachers, in-depth observation, and interviews with students. Results suggest that the impact of teacher conceptions vary considerably, that the teaching of history has little impact on student belief in four of the classrooms, and a profound impact in one, and that approaches to the teaching of history are linked, implicitly, to competing ideological orientations.