Abstract
The epistemological concept ofperspectivemeets all the conditions set by Meyer and Land (2003, 2006) to be considered a threshold concept for history learning. Following this initial hypothesis, this paper analyses the concept and the ways in which it constitutes a threshold: grasping perspective not only transforms one’s understanding of history, but it is also necessary for many aspects of historical thinking. Yet grappling with perspective is no easy feat, since understanding it requires the learner to confront other deeply rooted concepts and beliefs. Accordingly, the article explains how naive realism and the engrained epistemological tradition embodied in the expression ‘facts first’ make it difficult to understand history through perspective. Finally, a four-part model outlining different ways of understanding perspective is proposed, thus providing a framework within which we can think about what it means to cross the threshold from naive realism to a perspectivist vision of history.
Highlights
The CHATA project (Concepts of History and Teaching Approaches: 7 to 14) (Lee, 1998; Lee and Ashby, 2000; Lee and Shemilt, 2004) drew attention to the great burden that naive epistemological beliefs pose for the development of students’ historical thinking
By proposing that perspective should be understood as a threshold concept, we argue that there is a problematic and transcendental stumbling block for the study of history, and that the notion of threshold concepts allows us to think about perspective in a new and fruitful way, by drawing on an important body of research: A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something
If we admit that we cannot attain the truth of things because we cannot avoid thinking from a certain perspective, does this mean that there is no longer any form of truth? Many perspectivist theorists resist this idea, and instead argue that, even if no single, absolute truth can be attained, historical or scientific discourse can attain some degree of truth when it is consistent with empirical observations and available evidence. In contrast to this realistic perspectivism, we find anti-realism, which claims that any observation or experiment is always conceived according to a certain perspective
Summary
The CHATA project (Concepts of History and Teaching Approaches: 7 to 14) (Lee, 1998; Lee and Ashby, 2000; Lee and Shemilt, 2004) drew attention to the great burden that naive epistemological beliefs pose for the development of students’ historical thinking. Naive realism (the belief that one can discover and represent the (definitive) truth of things, things as they are) is a largely implicit view of the world All, this theory warns us of the transcendental importance of designing the curriculum around these threshold concepts, so that students can gradually move towards the way of thinking and practising used by experts in a given field. As some authors have pointed out, learning to think about history is not something that comes naturally (Chapman, 2011b; Lee, 2005; Wineburg, 2001) On the contrary, it entails a remarkable effort and difficulty that stems, in my opinion, from the problematic and counter-intuitive nature of the concept of perspective, starting with the renunciation of that reassuring distinction between facts and interpretations that accounts for the diversity of stories and theories without renouncing realism. This final conception, required to fully cross the threshold, is difficult to take
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