Rethinking presentism in history education

ABSTRACT

Since the early 2000s, the use of the term presentism has rapidly increased in both the historical discipline and public discussions of history. Most recently, presentism has been widely discussed and debated in articles about the pulling down and defacement of statues in countries around the world inspired by the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Many of these discussions reveal a lack of clarity and understanding about presentism’s complex nature. Given how important this concept is to the historical discipline, and how often the term is being used in academic, political, and cultural discourses, we believe presentism warrants further attention and discussion from history educators. This article aims to rethink the place of presentism in history education by considering how historians define and categorize common types of presentism, examining key arguments for and against presentism, and analyzing how history educators have approached it. We conclude by making the case that presentism is a necessary and potentially productive concept for history education.

KEYWORDS:

• Anachronism
• historical empathy
• historical thinking
• history education
• perspective taking
• presentism

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Peter Seixas for his continued mentorship and for reading and providing thoughtful commentary on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).