Korean Teachers Discussing Historical Significance and Instructional Significance in World History : What is Historically Significant and What is Significant Enough to Teach?

Abstract

This study analyzes interviews with 4 preservice teachers and 4 practicing teachers on the issue of significance in world history. With recent studies highlighting the role of teachers in classroom reform, the need to examine and draw from teachers’ expertise is higher than ever. This expert-novice study drew from Harris and Girard(2014) and asked 8 participants to select three significant events out of 22 world history events that they thought to be significant in world history general and significant for middle school students to learn in school respectively. Participants also explained why they thought each event to be significant. The findings suggest that teachers used different criteria in telling general historical significance and instructional significance. Preservice teachers and practicing teachers also demonstrated differences in their selection of events and in their explanations. Such findings underline the complexity and multi-facetedness of teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and the need to revamp the world history teacher preparation program so that preservice teachers could have more experiences in enhancing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching and learning world history and opportunities to grow as successful world history teachers.