Examining historical consciousness through history-as-interpretive-filter templates: implications for research and education

Abstract

ABSTRACT As an object of inquiry for research and educational purposes, this article introduces the concept of history-as-interpretive-filter and operationalises it as a novel approach to examining the impact of individuals’ historical consciousness on their epistemic positioning when faced with social problems of a historical character. In viewing individuals’ intellectualization of history’s workings as a form of memory practice, it intersects and builds on both Rüsen’s anthropocentric understanding of historical consciousness and Wertsch’s notion of narrative templates—where, as a cultural tool, history-as-interpretive-filter is distinguished from individuals’ narrative content configurations of the past. Methodologically, the article intersects history-as-interpretive-filter’s emerging incognizant templates with its associated, consciously expressed conceptual categories, to then evaluate the resulting information’s mode of transmission. The extent to which individuals nuance their thinking and take critical distance from their knowledge claims consequently surfaces. As empirical evidence, the History-is-a-Form-of-Meaningful-Exchange template demonstrates how one such incognizant frame cuts across objectivist, subjectivist and nuanced approaches to making sense of social reality. Through highlighting a potential misalignment between intentions and the template’s application, history-as-interpretive-filter’s educational value lies in its ability to help users recognize and historicize their incognizant thinking patterns and to thus gain self-reflexive mindsets for enacting history when engaging with the world.