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Citation: 

Sandwell, Ruth. “The Internal Divide: Historians and their Teaching.” In Bridging Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, edited by Mordechai Gordon and Thomas V. O’Brien, 17-30. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2007.

Abstract/Summary: 

The author begins the chapter by describing an experiment conducted by McDiarmid & Vinten-Johansen where a history teacher and a historian taught a secondary history class where they attempted to engage students in their own learning. The issue, however, that they found was that history teachers and historians seem to be from different worlds in North America. The author focused on the fact that, in their classes, undergraduate students in history learn little about what historians do. Sandwell explores the problem of teaching undergraduate history courses from the perspective of an academic historian. They have a deep understanding of historical theories and practices relating to their historical work but little in the way of their work as teachers. She states that while there is a disjuncture among historian’s pedagogical knowledge, there is also a great disjuncture between what the historians research professionally and what they are teaching. According to Sandwell, historians in Canada do not effectively convey their practices or theories when the most common pedagogical form used by most historians is the lecture. Sandwell concludes with the suggestion that the fallout between the division of theory and practice of the academic historian and teacher is creating problems in elementary and secondary education. It is creeping into classrooms across North America and is undermining the new pedagogies of history education, which seek to promote a critical, informed, humanistic understanding of the world in which we live.

Source/Credit: 
Erika Smith