ERIC Number: EJ1371261
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0093-3104
EISSN: EISSN-2163-1654
Moral Judgment in History Education and Historical Positionality as a Moral Evaluator
Theory and Research in Social Education, v50 n4 p530-552 2022
This article presents a critical analysis of moral judgment in history education using the case of Cecil Rhodes as an example. For this purpose, I first examine the arguments for and against passing judgment on past actions given by historians, historical philosophers, and history education researchers. Second, I take a close look at the ways students approach moral issues in history and identify the shortcomings in these approaches. Then, I propose three cognitive acts students must perform to fully understand their historical positionality as a moral evaluator: (1) distinguishing between moral values and factual beliefs, (2) examining the consensual statuses of moral values and factual beliefs, and (3) evaluating the reliability of one's own belief-forming processes. These cognitive acts, though mentioned in the literature in various contexts, have not been systematically analyzed in relation to moral judgment in history education. In the end, I argue that by performing such acts, students will be able to triangulate their position as a moral evaluator relative to the historical actor and his or her contemporaries and understand the epistemic status of their moral judgment.
Descriptors: Moral Values, Decision Making, History Instruction, Historians, Student Attitudes, Reliability, Beliefs, Critical Thinking, Teaching Methods, Foreign Countries, Public Officials, Historic Sites, Activism, Racial Segregation, Social Change, Universities, Colonialism, Political Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa (Cape Town)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A