Students as Meaning-Makers and the Quest for the Common School: a Micro-Ethnography of a US History Classroom

This study examined the extent to which (a) nine US history students developed historically-grounded perspectives, and (b) the entire class engaged itself-in inclusive, moral debate about historical events and issues. Inductive methods were used in this micro-ethnographic study to construct and verify its themes through interview, classroom observation and student survey. Seven students demonstrated identifiable perspectives. History was viewed by these students as personally-constructed interpretations, not as value-free chronologies. Only one student's perspective, however, was historically-grounded; other perspectives were grounded in references to contemporary issues. Evidence of moral debate was limited to two debates observed during 24 classroom observations. These two findings seemed interconnected: students with little historical grounding to their perspectives may have little inclination toward collective, ethical critique. Moral debate consisting of student exchange of diverse historically-grounded perspectives was not the classroom norm. (Abstract vom Verlag übernommen).