Critical Historical Thinking: When Official Narratives Collide With Other Narratives

Abstract

In this article the authors examine The Student as Historian project in highlighting how critical historical thinking can provide other and more complex renditions of history. The authors note that teachers’ understandings of educational ends, purposes, values, and critical content knowledge are entwined and inextricable from ideological stances and historical positionality.

Notes

The authors acknowledge the multiple social studies scholars who through the years (1999 to the present) have made significant contributions to The Student as Historian project while it was housed at the University of Colorado, Boulder, including Cecil Robinson and Michelle Reidell, and since its inception at the University of Texas at Austin, including Antonio Castro, Caroline Sullivan, Tom Wacker, Brooke Blevins, and Kathy Obenchain. In addition, we acknowledge the continued collaborative work of the social studies graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin including LaGarrett King, Ryan Crowley, Elizabeth Almond, and Billy Smith. Finally we acknowledge the invaluable and enduring attention to the project by the social studies faculty at the University of Texas at Austin including Sherry Field and Anthony Brown.

There are several Web sites that have been developed over time that reflect a similar pattern. In particular, we would showcase the work of Sam Wineburg and Historical Thinking Matters (http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/).