How Do students Understand Historical Significance? : The Impact of ‘Narrative Templates’ on Students’ Historical Understanding

Abstract

This study investigated how students make sense of historical significance. Using qualitative, task-based interviews, I interviewed 28 secondary students who had taken Korean history courses. Findings indicated that students emphasized the themes of hardship, struggle, and the national development, and they constructed a complete narrative template, ‘hardship—struggle—development,’ based on these three themes. Drawing on Wertsch’s concept of narrative templates, I argue that Korean students’ historical understanding was informed by their use of a narrative template that was present in and out of school. Yet although this template is widely used to explain Korean history, this resulted in significant omissions and distortions. These findings suggest that history educators should consider how reliance on a single narrative structure for understanding history limits students’ historical thinking. I conclude that many different kinds of narrative templates as well as a variety of cultural tools are necessary for students to develop a more complete and nuanced historical understanding.