Ethical Judgments in History: Are they right or wrong?

Posted by Lindsay Gibson
26 September 2011 - 2:53am

After two years of coursework and three arduous months of comprehensive exams I am preparing for the next hurdle in the seemingly never-ending steeplechase that is a PhD. My next opponent is the dissertation proposal, which if successfully vanquished will lead to my anointment as a “PhD Candidate”, a title which doesn’t seem much more illustrious than my current position as “PhD Student”. The process of choosing a specific topic and developing my research questions has proven to be much more difficult than I expected. Admittedly, every time I sat down to come up with something I was stricken with either a sudden case of procrastination, or the equally as debilitating malady known as “find anything else to occupy your time that is infinitely more interesting and important than what you are supposed to be doing.”

I wanted to focus on a topic somewhere on the scale between groundbreaking and positively fascinating, something that would make a significant contribution to history education research, and perhaps even garner me some critical acclaim. After much stagnation, little production and some gentle prodding from my supervisor, I decided to change tack and take a more pragmatic approach. I chose a topic that was interesting and meaningful to me, and was capable of maintaining my interest and attention throughout the process of gathering and analyzing data, writing and then (hopefully) defending my dissertation. There is one topic in history education that has continued to interest me throughout the past decade of work in history education as a high school history teacher, instructor in pre-service teacher education, writer and editor of history curriculum and learning materials, and graduate student:

the issue of ethical judgments in history.

Ethical judgments (also referred to as moral judgments or “the ethical dimension”) are statements of praise or blame based on standards of right or wrong that focus on the intentions of individuals or institutions, the quality of actions promoted by such intentions, and the consequences of such actions to the extent that they were foreseen, or foreseeable (Oldfield, 1981, p. 260). There have been recurring debates amongst historians about the acceptability of ethical judgments in the historical discipline, however, there is general agreement amongst the majority of historians, historiographers and philosophers today that explicit or implicit ethical judgments are unavoidable when historians write, teach and think about history (Oldfield, 1981; Gaddis, 2002; Cracraft, 2004; Vann, 2004).

Since history became mandatory in public schools over a century ago, ethical judgments have been recognized as one of the most important purposes for teaching history. However, despite the ubiquitous presence of ethical judgments in schools, research by Seixas and Ercikan (2010) suggests that teachers rarely focus explicitly on ethical judgments when they teach. This does not necessarily mean that teachers don’t make ethical judgments, or students are not invited to make ethical judgments, only that teachers do not explicitly focus on ethical judgments when teaching. Over the past forty years several history education researchers have focused on understanding the development of students’ historical thinking and understanding, however, little attention has been paid to ethical judgments. Barton & Levstik (2004) confirm this conclusion by arguing that moral response “...forms a major component of history education in schools, although its role is generally unacknowledged and unanalyzed” (p. 104). Of the different conceptions and theories of historical thinking developed during this time period only the 1996 U.S National Standards for History in the Schools, Barton and Levstik (2004), and the Historical Thinking Project based on a Dr. Peter Seixas’ conception of historical thinking have included an explicit focus on ethical judgments.

My research is going to focus on the following questions:

1. Do teachers think ethical judgments are an important part of learning history and what factors have influenced these beliefs?

2. What are the different ways that ethical judgments are present in the history classrooms and what criteria do teachers consider when making ethical judgments?

3. What are the benefits and limitations that teachers encounter when teaching students to make responsible ethical judgments?

In my upcoming blogs I will discuss various aspects of ethical judgments in history including:

· Arguments for and against the acceptability of ethical judgments in history.

· How to help students recognize implicit and explicit ethical judgments.

· How to teach students to make responsible ethical judgments in history.