Apprenticing undergraduate history students into interpretative practice through local history
Date
2007-03-01T13:33:46Z
Authors
Ludlow, Elizabeth Helen
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Abstract
This research report investigates the development of undergraduate history students’
knowledgeability and identity as historians. Drawing on a sociological paradigm, it
examines the classification of the discipline or practice of history that informs
undergraduate history teaching at a sample of three South African universities. It
suggests that most undergraduate courses focus on and aim to apprentice students into
a partial experience of the practice of history – the adjudicative task of the historian.
The report then presents findings from an analysis of student feedback on their
participation in an extended local history assignment. The analysis of student work
draws upon socio-cultural notions of situated learning and the community of practice.
This analysis suggests that as an instance of situated learning, the local history
engagement enhances students’ understanding of the interpretative task of the
historian and their own identity as constructors of history. The findings also suggest
that there are implications for curriculum development in undergraduate history
programmes.
Description
Student Number : 7262070 -
M Ed research report -
School of Education -
Faculty of Humanities
Keywords
undergraduate academic history, practice of history, classification, situated learning, communities of practice, local history