Historical Inquiry Research Articles

(Re)Sources: Historical Inquiry and Labour History Archives: The 18th Biennial Conference of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra, 23–25 November 2023

(Re)Sources: Historical Inquiry and Labour History Archives: The 18th Biennial Conference of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra, 23–25 November 2023

African indigenous knowledge: Philosophy in history and history in philosophy

Rationale of Study – This paper delves into the interconnectedness of African indigenous knowledge, situating its historical roots and the inherent philosophy embedded in its practice. African indigenous knowledge encompasses formulating a definition of knowledge in an African context and the justification of knowledge, which has its stand on cultural, linguistic, aphorism, and proverbial content. Scholars, however, argue that its historical foundation lies in the depths of time, tracing back to the ancient civilisations that thrived across the continent. On the other hand, its philosophical discourse serves as the guiding force behind the practices and beliefs of various communities. Within this purview, this paper sets out to close this gap.Methodology – This paper adopts primary and secondary data sources, including oral information, books, articles, and journals. However, it uses argumentative and analytic philosophical and historical inquiry methods to highlight that African indigenous knowledge is pivotal in preserving historical and philosophical insights.Findings – The study finds an interlink between history and philosophy in advancing African indigenous knowledge and its practice of knowing and justifying the indubitable truth that cannot be objectively attained in Western epistemology.Implications – The study contributes to the existing debate that the wisdom embedded in proverbs, myths, and folklore is a repository of philosophical principles, offering guidance on ethics, social harmony, and the relationship between humanity and nature through historical insights.Originality – The paper concludes that African indigenous knowledge has its own social and cultural dimension. It addresses the problem of knowledge by dividing its domain into rational, empirical, and mystical components, solving the problem of justification in the African context.

Liberal Democracy Promotion and the Observation of Democracy

ABSTRACT This article suggests that the observation of democracy is at the core of liberal democracy promotion. Broadly conceived, the observation of democracy is evident in the democracy reports published by international organisations and non-state actors and common meaning making about “target” states in democracy promotion. Based on an historical inquiry focused on developments in the Permanent Mandates Commission, Trusteeship Council and, to lesser degree, Freedom House, I argue that the observation of democracy stems from practices invented in colonial contexts and includes long-lasting epistemic and political hierarchies. Though organisations develop varying styles, observations of democracy show similar components and a common orientation towards Western understandings of representative democracy. My argument contributes to research on how contemporary practices are enabled by and reproduce (post-) colonial patterns and historical reflection on epistemic and political hierarchies in democracy promotion.

Exploring interactions between learners and ChatGPT from a learner agency perspective: A multiple case study on historical Inquiry

Exploring interactions between learners and ChatGPT from a learner agency perspective: A multiple case study on historical Inquiry

A HOUSE WITH EXPOSED BEAMS: INQUIRY‐BASED LEARNING AND HISTORIANS’ ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES AS SCHOLAR‐TEACHERS

ABSTRACTThis is an article about the relationship between historical scholarship and pedagogy. The teaching of history can itself be seen as a meaningful form of historical scholarship and poses some of the same methodological, theoretical, and ethical questions as historical research, albeit usually generating quite different answers to the queries. I delve into three sets of questions that are of significance to historians in our roles as researchers and as teachers. In scholarship and in teaching, it pays to consider the relationship between authority and humility. In the library and the classroom, there is a balance to be struck between narrative and analysis. In both settings, one must at times choose between historicist particularity and human universalism. I discuss each set of tensions with reference to such thinkers as Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Friedrich Nietzsche. In each case, I also draw on my own experience in the classroom, particularly my time teaching tenth‐grade world history. Throughout, I suggest that intellectually and ethically flourishing history classrooms are often “houses with exposed beams,” in which teachers initiate students as junior members in communities of historical inquiry, often, though not always, through collaborative analyses of revealing primary documents.

Scholarship for the People: Michael K. Buckland and Information Science

ABSTRACTMichael Buckland's influential career spans several decades and has an international reach. His work has helped the field to define such key concepts as “information” and “document.” The presentations will address just a few of many topics he addressed in his career; these topics have had enormous influence on people's work in information science and on the research community. Documentation is one area that has captured Buckland's attention, and Ronald Day will present a perspective that embraces history and the current state. Fang Wang will revisit the question of what is the “science” of information science. Ryan Shaw turns his eyes to the existence and state of data science. Tatjana Aparac‐Jelušić will speak to the international scope of Buckland's work and influence. With this panel we are attempting to emphasize the need for historical and theoretical enquiry into the information field, as represented by Buckland's scholarship and its relevance to the entirety of information science. We are attempting to accomplish this emphasis by integrating the participation of audience members into the discussion.

Non-Aristotelian Elements in Carl Menger's Methodology

Abstract According to the dominant interpretation, Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian school, was an Aristotelian methodologist of social science. As this article attempts to demonstrate, this influence was not decisive in shaping Menger's methodology. In fact, Menger shared several core positions with modern thinkers. Such non-Aristotelian threads in Menger tackled in the article encompass his views on essentialism and realism, a priori knowledge, the classification of sciences, and scientific value-freedom, as well as methods of historical inquiry. As is shown, while unattachable to any specific philosophical school, those five elements constitute a fairly consistent, non-Aristotelian account of economic methodology.

Contribution of Dalit Women to the Indian Freedom Struggle

As we all know, the Indian National movement was a series of historical events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. The Indian independence movement was in constant ideological evolution. Essentially anti-colonial, it was supplemented by visions of independent, economic development with a secular, democratic, republican, and civil-libertarian political structure. Women's participation was a pillar of a national movement. Their participation in the Indian freedom struggle is a significant area of contemporary historical inquiry. Dalit women's roles, opinions, motivations, specificity, and extent in shaping the freedom movement were rarely acknowledged because they were part marginalised group of people who make up part of what is officially known as Scheduled Castes in India. This research will highlight how Dalit women contributed to such a valuable historical legacy of independent India.

Toiling for oil: Daqing, real utopias and the production of livelihood in communist China

This dialogical interrogation of Hou Li’s important history of Daqing examines the contradictions of structure and agency in the building of communist China’s first oil city. Three provocations are raised. Two relate to ecology: the first on the ecological dimension of extractivism, which requires careful consideration in light of the current status of CO2 emissions per capita, with China accounting for about half the emissions of fossil fuel exporters like Australia; the second on how extractivism and decarbonization can be considered in light of recent claims that the US military was the world’s largest consumer of hydrocarbons in 2019. The third relates to the ambiguity of the term “capital” in economic discourse, which invariably finds its way into cognate scholarly disciplines, such as historical inquiry and urban planning.

Exceptionalism and nationalism in contemporary Iranian thought: a study of Javad Tabatabai’s scholarship

ABSTRACT This paper examines the influence of the discourse of exceptionality of Iran on contemporary Iranian thought, particularly its intricate relationship with the ideology of nationalism. It focuses on the scholarly contributions of Javad Tabatabai (1945–2023), whose work has significantly impacted recent Iranian intellectual debates in both academic and broader public discussions on Iranian nationhood and identity. The paper traces the evolution of Tabatabai’s work from its initial philosophical-theoretical foundation aimed at addressing the ‘problem of Iran’ to its final emphasis on Iran’s exceptional nature, reflecting a nationalist-exceptionalist perspective. By examining the ‘power of exception’ and its utilization in history and social science disciplines, the paper illustrates how claims of exceptionality wield rhetorical influence despite lacking empirical support in scholarly discourse. It argues that Tabatabai’s historiographical assumptions are shaped by a combination of historical exceptionalism and ‘methodological nationalism’. Drawing from insights in Global History, the paper challenges these assumptions in favour of more integrative perspectives. It advocates for transcending the confines of ‘national history’, and explores the possibility of contending historical and contemporary inquiries of Iranian nationhood and identity without succumbing to the charm of exceptionalist narratives.

Global Social History: Rethinking Class and Social Transformation in the Modern World

AbstractThe rise of global history has fundamentally reshaped historical scholarship over recent years. Questions about class structures, however, have rarely been specifically addressed by global historians. Scholars of social history, meanwhile, have traditionally studied social stratification within national frameworks. The introduction to this special issue addresses these shortcomings, exploring global social history as a new field of historical inquiry. Interweaving global and social history, it demonstrates that we cannot understand the emergence and transformation of social groups across the modern world – groups such as the aristocracy, the economic bourgeoisie, the educated middle classes, the peasantry, or nomadic groups – without considering how they were influenced by global entanglements. Moreover, it points out that we have to examine globalization as a social process that was shaped by particular social groups. The special issue will connect the study of global connectivity with that of the emergence and evolution of social structures.

“I’ve become more critical”: Development of Dutch elementary teachers’ beliefs about history and history teaching in an inquiry-based professional learning program

This study aims to explore how elementary school teachers’ beliefs about the nature of history and pedagogical beliefs about teaching history developed over the course of a two-year professional development (PD) program and which elements of the program stimulated this development. This PD program aimed to develop participants’ skills in historical reasoning and in designing inquiry-based history lessons that encourage students to reason historically. Teachers engaged in historical reasoning and developed and implemented activities for inquiry-based learning in their history lessons. In this qualitative study, we interviewed nine teachers before and after the program, and they completed the Beliefs about Learning and Teaching History questionnaire before, during and after the program. Thematic analysis of the data shows that elementary teachers participating in our PD program developed more nuanced beliefs about history. Both epistemic and pedagogical beliefs became more crystallized and more criterialist in nature, but it is especially participants’ pedagogical beliefs that became more oriented toward inquiry into historical sources and the importance of developing historical reasoning skills in students. Our findings also indicate that more naïve ideas remained in addition to more nuanced beliefs. Participants indicated that their pedagogical beliefs about teaching history and conducting historical inquiry changed because of the program. Based on the final interviews, we identified five elements that enhanced participants’ professional development toward teaching inquiry-based history lessons and influenced their epistemic beliefs. It was the combination of engaging in historical inquiry, modeling by the facilitator, participating in group discussions about historical inquiry, searching for historical sources themselves and developing and discussing their own lesson designs and putting them into practice that made participants see the possibilities of inquiry-based history learning and stimulated the development of their beliefs. The findings of this study imply that to prepare elementary teachers to teach history in a way that fosters inquiry into historical sources and historical reasoning, PD programs and teacher education should pay attention to the epistemology of history as a discipline and provide teachers with tools to do inquiry.

Podcasts as Teacher Talk in Historical Thinking

One of the challenges associated with preparing teacher-candidates to teach historical thinking involves moving away from narrative practices that inhibit explicit use of historical thinking concepts. One belief is that if teachers are able to demonstrate out loud how historians work with primary sources—and thus model historical reasoning through the use of historical thinking strategies—they can better assist their students to arrive at more complex understandings about the constructed nature of history. Indeed, as van Boxtel and van Drie (2018) have argued, how teacher-candidates make sense of the past is key to how their future students will learn to make sense of the past. In this practice-oriented journal article, I explore the benefits and challenges of using podcasts as a pedagogy for preparing pre-service teachers to model historical thinking—and thus engage in dynamic conversations as teacher talk. Through a semester-long project that culminated in the development of “Unwritten Histories” podcasts, teacher-candidates were encouraged to work in groups to adopt a National History Day framework for historical inquiry. This involved the use of annotated bibliographies, inquiry questions, and storylines. Participants were also required to adopt a vocabulary for historical thinking, thus practising the strategy of modelling historical thinking out loud—as teacher talk. This pedagogy was found to be beneficial in supporting a criterialist stance in historical reasoning. What makes this inquiry unique is that while a great deal of research has been undertaken with regards to explicitly teaching historical reasoning through document-based writing (De La Paz et al., 2010; Monte-Sano, 2011; Nokes et al., 2007; Sendur et al., 2021), very little research has been undertaken with regards to creating dialogic podcasts for this purpose.

(Un)critical geographies of race: A critical race discourse analysis of an online local history resource

ABSTRACT Websites that provide accounts of local history represent powerful curricular possibilities for K-12 history teachers and those of all ages who engage with historical narratives centered on place. The extent to which, however, such resources furnish explicitly racialized interpretations of place often determines how educators and learners can use them in social studies contexts. In this critical race discourse analysis, we examined the function of race in Wacohistory.org, a local history website comprised of 200 entries. Drawing on critical geographies of race as our theoretical lens, we found that the website de-racialized Waco’s geography and ultimately overlooked how racial power has shaped the history of this city, and we consider specifically what this oversight meant for Black Wacoans. Thus, we argue that Wacohistory.org discounted how race has historically determined placed-based access and experiences for Wacoans. This study offers implications and recommendations that speak to what was lost in failing to racialize a particular online history curriculum, contributing to the literature concerned with race-evasive spatial histories that ultimately thwart meaningful local historical inquiry and the theoretical prospects that critical geographies of race offer social studies.

Assessment of Caesarean Section Outcomes for Preterm Pregnancies in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh

A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Community Based Medical College, Bangladesh (CBMC,B), Mymensingh, Bangladesh, to evaluate the indications and feto-maternal outcomes of Caesarean section operation among preterm pregnant women. A total of 120 patients were enrolled between January and December of 2023. Data collection involved a structured questionnaire, file review, historical inquiry, and monitoring of mother and baby. Most individuals were aged 15-20 (37.50%) and had tertiary education (75.00%). Majority were from poor socio-economic backgrounds (76.67%) and rural areas (70%). Primigravida cases were predominant (65.00%), and multiparous accounted for 36.67%. Eclampsia (21.67%) and preeclampsia (20.83%) were common indications for cesarean section. Most procedures were emergency (93.33%). Maternal complications were low, with 64.17% having none. Most infants had low birth weight (62.50%) and experienced live births (91.67%), with a notable stillbirth rate (8.33%). Fetal complications included low birth weight (88.33%) and prematurity (20%). No complications were noted in 31.67% of cases. The study examined the complexities of Cesarean section (CS) for preterm births, highlighting maternal-fetal factors, varied indications, and outcomes, urging tailored interventions. CBMJ 2024 July: vol. 13 no. 02 P: 243-250

Becoming and Remaining (Un)Critical: A Longitudinal Study of Beginning History Teachers

In this study, researchers used a longitudinal multisite qualitative cross-case study to examine the beliefs and practices of five beginning teachers related to critical historical inquiry. They collected interview, observation, and classroom artifact data over a 5-year period, from teacher preparation through the teachers’ 4th year in the classroom. Using critical theory as the frame, the researchers found that the beginning history teachers tended to move along two pedagogical continuums: one related to the criticality of content and the other related to didactic- or inquiry- based instruction. Teachers were more successful in engaging in critical historical inquiry practices if they had well-developed conceptual and practice tools and had opportunities to teach within school contexts that supported the use of critical historical inquiry.

Multicultural conversations: The nature and future of culture, identity and nationalism

Despite well-known criticism of multiculturalism in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Australia, India and elsewhere since 9/11, such policies have proliferated ( Banting and Kymlicka, 2013 ; Mathieu, 2018 ) and the Canadian and Australian policies of multiculturalism have since celebrated their 50th birthdays. Political theories of multiculturalism have proliferated in this period too ( Lenard, 2022 ; Modood, 2007/2013 ; Patten, 2014 ; Parekh, 2006 , 2019 ; Phillips, 2007 ; Tyler, 2011 ). Schools of multiculturalist thought have been identified ( Levey, 2019 ; Uberoi and Modood, 2019 ), as have contextual methods in the political theory and normative sociology of multiculturalism ( Modood, 2020 ; Modood and Thompson, 2018 ). New historical inquiries into the origins of the political thought of multiculturalism have begun ( Tyler, 2017 ; Uberoi, 2021 ) and the ideas of multiculturalists have been altered to defend majority rights ( Koopmans and Orgad, 2022 ). Current and former politicians continue to debate its merits ( Braverman, 2023 ; Denham, 2023 ). Policies of multiculturalism and multiculturalist ideas have thus proved more resilient than many had thought. In the following conversation chaired by James Connelly, which took place on 20 June 2023, Bhikhu Parekh, Tariq Modood, Varun Uberoi, and Colin Tyler discuss the history, varied natures, and future of the contested multiculturalist ideas of “culture,” “identity” and “nationalism”.

Methodology of Mosaicking and Georeferencing for Multi-Sheet Early Maps with Irregular Cuts Using the Example of the Topographic Chart of the Kingdom of Poland

The Topographic Chart of the Kingdom of Poland (pol. Topograficzna Karta Królestwa Polskiego, commonly referred to as ‘the Quartermaster’s Map’, hereinafter: TKKP) is the first Polish modern topographic map of Poland (1:126,000, 1843). Cartographic historians acclaim its conception by the General Quartermaster of the Polish Army, noting its editorial principles and technical execution as exemplars of the early 19th-century cartographic standards. Today, it stands as a national heritage relic, furnishing invaluable insights into the former Polish Kingdom’s topography. Although extensively utilised in geographical and historical inquiries, the TKKP has yet to undergo a comprehensive geomatic investigation and publication as spatial data services. Primarily, this delay stems from the challenges of mosaicking and georeferencing its 60 constituent sheets, owing to the uncertain mathematical framework and irregular sheet cuts. In 2023, the authors embarked on rectifying this by creating a unified TKKP mosaic and georeferencing the map to contemporary reference data benchmarks. This endeavour involved scrutinising the map’s mathematical accuracy and verifying prior findings. The resultant product is accessible via the ‘Maps with the Past’ platform, developed by the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences The dissemination of raster data services adhering to OGC standards such as WMTS (Web Map Tile Service), ECW (Enhanced Compression Wavelet), and COG (Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF) facilitates the swift and seamless integration of the generated data into web and GIS tools. The digital edition of the TKKP emerges as a pivotal resource for investigations spanning natural and anthropogenic environmental transformations, sustainable development, and cultural heritage studies.

Karl Marx and the Catholic Church’s praxis

This article addresses the question of whether a spiritual institution can be influenced by a secular ideology, which is conceived as ‘atheist’. Can a secular ideology influence and shape the nature and praxis of an institution which prides itself as having a predominant spiritual foundation. This article’s objective is not necessarily meant to provide an absolute doctrine but seeks to stimulate debate based on a reasonable connection of Socialist influence on the development of the Catholic Church’s praxis. This article argues that the Catholic Church’s praxis, which is explicitly embodied in the Catholic Social Teachings might have been influenced by a Marxist or Socialist/communist wave of the 19th Century. This article is guided by a literature-related historical enquiry method, which compares historical events in a bid to identify possible logical connections. Literature reveals that in as much as some Catholic related movements such as the Liberation Theology had an obvious connection with Marxism, the praxis of movements embodied in both the ‘Social Catholicism’ and ‘Catholic Action’ was shaped by the Church’s beliefs and contextual circumstances of its time. Literature further shows the Catholic Church neither subscribe to the Socialist revolutionary stance nor approve of its methodology, but it recognised the effects of these socialist movements toward the workers. Hence, the influence of these secular institutions cannot be totally dismissed, even though they did not shape its praxis.

The Use and Misuse of East Asian History in IR Theorizing

Abstract The past two decades have witnessed a wave of research into the history of East Asian international relations (IR). Scholars seek to broaden the historical frames of reference in IR for both theory testing and theory generation. The article reviews this recent trend, examining its limitations and exploring future agenda. In studying historical East Asian IR, scholars have different expectations regarding whether their research would support, complement, or undermine mainstream Western IR. The spatial and temporal scope of their historical inquiries, as well as theoretical ambitions, therefore, differ significantly. Scholars no longer treat all East Asian history as simply one case, but as multiple cases with divergent patterns, and they recognize that the system consisted not solely of China but of multiple actors. In addition to contrasting East Asia with Western Europe, they explore also the similarities between East Asia and other non-Western regions. To advance the agenda, however, scholars must scrupulously navigate three tensions. They are: the tension between the “East” and “West”; the tension between the two disciplines of history and IR; and the tension between past and present. Future studies, therefore, must broaden their horizons in order to better transcend ethnocentrism and exceptionalism, refine their methodology both to avoid selection bias and conduct more sophisticated comparisons, and to maintain a proper distance from contemporary politics. Most importantly, they should combine high-quality historical research with cutting-edge IR theoretical trends to construct dynamic theories that could be applied to other regions.