I believe that teaching is the art of engaging, discovering, and connecting. My mission in education is therefore to excite others about the possibilities that are discovered through learning, and create an innovative, supportive, and collaborative environment that is conducive to forming the holistic person. Effective teaching includes passion, creativity, and care, and results in the development of holistic individuals who are not only willing to inquire, but also eager to learn. To actively engage students in the learning process, I believe that content material should be approachable, relevant, and relational. Through the manners I will suggest, the genre of historical fiction- utilized within the classroom- can accomplishes this aim. As a result, my inquiry project proposes that fiction should be used not only as a vehicle, but also as a source, to communicate fact in the humanities (particularly English and Social Studies), for as Albert Camus states, “fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” My inquiry question is therefore as follows: how might educators most effectively utilize historical “fiction” to teach historical “fact”?
According to Socrates, “education is the kindling of a Flame, not filling of a vessel.” Socrates (c. 470-399 BCE), a classical Greek philosopher closely associated with idealism, perpetuated the general philosophy that “ideas are the only true reality, the only thing worth knowing” (Cohen, 1999). In education, this idealism is articulated through perennialism, a concept that focuses on the mind and teaches “ideas that are everlasting” (Cohen, 1999). The Socratic Method, a method of arriving at truth through continuously asking questions and obtaining answers, is also deeply rooted in this ideal. Typically associated with the humanities and the liberal arts, these concepts are a vehicle for “thinking for life” (Groome, 269), Thomas Groome’s proposed theory for the purpose of education. My belief is that to “think for life” (Groome, 269), the mind must first be engaged before the soul can be shaped. To accomplish this, I propose that educators draw on historical fiction novels or films to teach about the past. Kathy Nawrot suggests that textbooks, while useful, “often treat the study of history as a science… the student is the outsider, looking in” (343). Historical fiction, however, fascinates; it tells a story, forms impressions, and engages emotions (Nawrot, 343). Therefore, historical fiction “focuses on the human consequences of events and on the implications of human behavior” (Nawrot, 343), and thusly, can make a difference.
Plato, a student of Socrates, suggests that education is about “turning” the psyche (the soul), a process that is accomplished through first igniting the mind (Groome, 58-59). This process is one that “informs, [to] forms, [then] transforms” (Groome, 58-59). These ideals culminate in progressivism, my personal educational philosophy, which propagates “learning by doing” (Cohen, 1999). To Jean Piaget, a proponent of this philosophy, “the goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create [people] who are capable of doing new things” (Hamlyn, 113). In order for students to discover, students must be immersed in an environment that precipitates learning, and with texts that encourage interest. Lindgren and Schliesman argue that “children and teens will be transported to an earlier time through the pages of the following new books… [because] the vivid details and rich writing found in these works of historical fiction bring people and places of the past to life” (2006). Rycik and Rosler move a step beyond mere engagement and into pleasure, arguing that “high-quality historical fiction books can be used effectively in the classroom to not only bring history alive but also to help children appreciate the pleasure of reading this genre” (163). Transporting readers directly into a contemporary era and perspective, historical fiction provides a portal for students to truly experience different points of views, identities, and emotions (Rycik and Rosler, 163). This not only serves students within the classroom; it extends their thinking into their own personal lives, and the communities in which they belong, helping students “to gain an understanding of their own heritage and others” (Rycik and Rosler, 163). This is significant because it is just as important for students to become emotionally invested in a text as it is for them to become mentally engaged (Rycik and Rosler, 166). Rosenblatt remarks that “historical fiction provides an opportunity for children to make both an efferent and aesthetic response to literature” (Rycik and Rosler, 166), arguing that it is just as important for students to appreciate and experience the pleasure of a text, as it is for them to take something away from it.
In order for students to experience both an efferent and an aesthetic response to material, educators need to be vigilant and critical about which texts they select. These texts- whether short or long stories, poetry, novels, films, or television shows- should not only be accessible to all students, but should also be relevant, relational, and relatable. One example is The Crown television series on Netflix. Episodes can be explored, analyzed, and discussed to discover the daily realities of bridging the gap between the “old world” pre-war and a more modern society, as well as the resistance to the departure from traditional patriarchal gender roles. The book and film The Book Thief by Markus Zusak can be used to explore the cause and consequence and personal devastation of World War Two; Suzanna Collins’ book series The Hunger Games can be used to analyze social stratification and political formations; the hit television show Riverdale can be evaluated to deconstruct the socio-cultural and economic consequences of teenage drug use, gang violence, and social cliques. Ultimately, any format or genre can be incorporated in order to communicate the BC Curriculum Competencies and Big Ideas, and concepts can then be connected to any discipline. Though the assessment of teaching through fiction may not be as simplistic as some other routes of content (based on its basis in critical thinking and thinking extensions), project and activity based assessment could be utilized more to encourage collaboration and guided inquiry.
Aristotle argues that because education ultimately leads to the formation of self (Groome, 275), everything that occurs within an educational school environment matters. Therefore, students have to be engaged actively with the learning process, and exposed to materials that are authentic relevant and relational. This inquiry project will explore the question “how might educators most effectively utilize historical “fiction” to teach historical “fact”?” and suggest differing perspectives, motivations, biases, and views in a personalized manner. In order to fully analyze this question, sub-questions will be addressed: how can educators effectively implement fiction in the classroom to teach the curriculum; how does teaching “fact” through “fiction” connect with the curriculum; why does the dominant research in this field pertain towards elementary school and not secondary school? Through analyzing these questions, elements of manipulation, bias, and critical thinking (Big Ideas and Curriculum Competencies) will be addressed. Through exploring history through the lens of fiction and teaching through narrative instead of pure textbook “fact,” educators will ultimately be able to move away from the common grand narrative of history, and away from a history that is, as Winston Churchill states, “written by the victors.”
References
Cohen, LeoNora M. (1999). Philosophy and Education Continuum Chart. School of Education.
Groome, Thomas. (1998). Educating for Life: A Spiritual VisVIIn for Every Teacher and Parent. Texas.
Hamlyn, D. W., and Kieran Egan. (1986). Education and Psychology: Plato, Piaget and Scientific Psychology. British Journal of Educational Studies 34, 1.
Lindgren, Merri and Megan Schliesman. (2006). Wisconsin State Journal: HISTORICAL FICTION TEACHES VITAL LESSONS.
Nawrot, K. (1996). Making Connections with Historical Fiction. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 69 (6).
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00098655.1996.10114336?journalCode=vtch20
Politics. Barnes, Jonathan (ed.). The Complete Works of Aristotle., Books VII and VIII., trans. Benjamin Jowett (Princeton, NJ: Princton University Press, 1984)., pp. 2116-17, 2121-7, 13334a12.
Rycik, M., & Rosier, B. (2009). The Return of Historical Fiction. The Reading Teacher, 63(2), 163-166. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/40347667
Ms. Glinsbockel's Odyssey 