Apprenticing undergraduate history students into interpretative practice through local history

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.