Volume15,Number2,July2017 Making narrative connections? Exploring how late teens relate their own lives to the historically significant

Education Abstract

Mappingoutsomeofthewaysinwhichindividualsnarrativelyconnecttheirownstories to a broader human past contributes to existing theory about historical consciousness. Moreover,differencesinthewaysinwhichyoungpeoplespokeabouttheirdiagramssuggest thattheirassumptionsaboutthenatureofhistoricalknowledge-thatis,theirepistemological understandings of history -relate to important differences in terms of how they conceive of their identities and lives, hinting at the potentially profound impact of the kind of history educationthatpromotesrigoroushistoricalthinking.

The role of narratives
This study assumes that we construct and enact meaning and identity through discourse, particularly through narratives, which lie at the heart of how we make sense of who we are and our relationship to the world (Bruner, 1990;Hammack and Pilecki, 2012). Bruner defines narratives as 'acts of meaning' or cultural products through which we construct our understanding of the world -constructions that, according to Danto (1965), are necessarily infusedwithreferencestothepast.Brunercontrastsnarrativeswith'paradigmatic'or'logicoscientific' thinking, which involves trying to identify events as instances of an established law (Polkinghorne,1988).Brunerbelievesthatthereareuniversalstobefoundacrossnarratives, suchasa'structureofcommittedtime'withabeginning,middleandendorganizedaccordingto theirhumanrelevance (Bruner,2005:26).Thoughboundedbyhumanactions,storiestypically generate'gistsormorals'thattranscendtheparticularitiesofthenarrativetoldandinvitethe audiencetojudgethereasonsbehindindividualactions.Narrativescanberepresentedthrough avarietyofforms,includingthediagramsthatareanalysedinthispaper.Importantly,Bruner findsitimpossibletoseparatethethoughtthatgaverisetoanarrativeandthenarrativeitself: suchadistinctionisnotmadeinthispaper.
Thenextroundofanalysisattemptedtodifferentiatebetweenstudentswhotoldstories to explain their personal connection to the past and those who approached the question more 'analytically', as per Bruner's distinction between narrative and paradigmatic thinking. However,giventhecentralityofnarrativestohowwemakemeaningofourlives,itproved more productive to focus on the ways in which students integrated personal and historical narrativesintheirdiagrams.Bruner,commentingonwrittentexts,hasstatedthat'itisnotthat narrativeandparadigmaticmodesofdiscoursefuse,fortheydonot.Itis,rather,thatthelogical orparadigmaticmodeisbroughttobearonthetaskofexplicatingthebreachinthenarrative' (Bruner,2005:94).Thisdistinctionplayedoutinthisstudyasfollows:studentstypicallydrewa diagramcontainingnarrativethreads(orasinglecoherentnarrative)andthenwroteexplanatory or logical comments either within or alongside the diagram. Interviewed students retold or elaboratedonthesenarratives,whilealsobreakingoutintoanalyticcommentaryonthem.

Melvin: Historically contextualizing his own life story; exploring the relationship between individuals and bigger historical processes
Melvin was a soft-spoken, affable student who wore a baseball cap during his interview. He referredtohisCaribbeanheritageandlargefamily(heistheyoungestofeightchildren),aswell ashisreligiousfaith.HehastravelledextensivelytovisitfamilyintheCaribbeanandEuropeand haslivedinvariousGreaterBostonneighbourhoods.

Jess: Exploring how the past is helping shape the ongoing story of her own personal development; situating her own life at the confluence of various historical narratives
Jesswasagirlwithlongbrownhair,anaccomplishedgymnastanddancer.Shespokeofher Jewish ancestry and her family's involvement in the LGBT movement, as well as her close attachmenttoherlocalurbancommunity,whereshehaslivedherwholelife.Shearticulated herwordscarefully,oftenpausingasiftoreflectbeforerespondingtoquestions.

How students talked about their diagrams: The importance of epistemology
The ways in which students in the study talked about their diagrams were revealing of the potentialrelationshipbetweentheirunderstandingofthenatureofhistoricalknowledgeand theirindividualhistoricalconsciousness.Inparticular,therewasacontrastbetweenstudents who presented their diagrams as contingent, subjective interpretations of the relationship betweentheirownlivesandthepast,andthosewhoappearedtopresenttheirdiagramsas self-evident,straightforwardrepresentations.
Jess,forinstance,talkedfromthestartaboutnotbeing'allthatwelldefined'asreflected by the blob at the centre of her diagram. There is a sense of fluidity or movement in her diagram-asmuchintermsofherowninterpretationofherownplaceinhistoryasinevents ordevelopmentsthemselves.Showinganawarenessofthelimitationsofherownknowledge, shestatesthatshedidnotwanttoexcludeitemsfromherdiagramsimplybecauseofherown ignorance.

Implications
InconjunctionwiththeoverallsummaryshowninTable2,thesethreecasesprovidesnapshots ofdifferentwaysinwhichyoungpeopleusednarrativestrategiestoconnecttheirownlives to the past, as well as differences in the ways in which they talked about those strategies. Whilethisstudyishighlyexploratory,thesecasespointtotheapparentdiversityofwaysin whichyoungpeoplethinkaboutthemselvesinrelationtothepast,aswellasthesignificance of epistemological understanding in the construction of individual historical consciousness. Of course, many questions remain. For example, was the ability of Jess and Melvin to talk reflectively about their diagrams and their relationship to the past an indication of rigorous historicalunderstandinginadisciplinarysense,orofmoregenericcriticalorabstractthinking skills? Further, how do teens' broad developmental trajectories -such as those outlined by Erikson(1968)-intersectwiththeirhistoricalunderstanding?Itwouldbeinterestingtoask childrenofdifferentagestocompletethediagramtask.Youngerstudentswouldpresumably find it challenging to create a narrative about their own lives in toto, as indeed some of the studentsinthisstudymayhavedone.Examiningthepotentiallinksbetweenthedevelopment ofautobiographicalstory-tellingskillsandhowyoungpeoplerelatetheirownlivestothepast couldbeanotherproductivelineofresearch.
Methodologically,thestudyopensupsomeinterestingpossibilities,especiallyasthediagram activity invited students to synthesize their thinking about their personal connections to the pastinarelativelyopen-endedmanner.Thetaskinstructionsand/oranalysiscouldbealteredto investigaterelatedphenomena.Forexample,how,ifatall,dostudentsdealwiththeideathatas peopletheyareevolvingandmayhaveashiftingrelationshiptoorperspectiveonthepast?To whatextentdotheyportraythemselvesasactiveagentsintheirownrightratherthanindividuals subjecttoforcesbeyondtheircontrol?Howdodifferencesamongtheirvarious'meta-historical' understandings,suchastheirworkingideasabouthistoricalcausality,relatetohowtheytalkabout themselves in relation to the past? How would they position themselves relative to perceived national narratives? While it is impossible to prove a direct relationship from this single study -orthereasonsbehindsucharelationship-studentswhodisplayedanunderstandingofthe constructednatureofhistoricalknowledgealsogavetheimpressionofbeingmoreempoweredin termsoftalkingabouttheirfutureandnavigatingtheirownemergingidentities.
Withregardtopractice,therangeofpersonaldiagramsproducedbystudentsconfirms thatifteachersarelookingtobuildontheirstudents'existingideasandunderstandings,a'one size fits all' approachis likely to be misguidedand non-inclusive, and that national narratives are only one kind of narrative to which young people feel connected. This paper does not advocatethatyoungpeoplebeinvitedtorelateeverythingtheylearninhistorytothemselves. However,offeringopen-endedandpotentiallycreativeopportunitiesforthemtoreflectonthe connectionstheyperceivebetweenthemselvesandthepastislikelytobeengaging,particularly forolderteensgiventheirbroaderdevelopmentalneedtoestablishindependentidentities.
Furthermore,suchopportunitiescanactivelybuildhistoricalunderstanding.Giventhesheer varietyofdiagramsthatwillalmostcertainlybeproducedwithinasingleclassroom,students can learn a great deal by looking at and discussing the diagrams of their peers in ways that developtheirunderstandingthatpeoplehavedifferentperspectivesonthepast,andthatthese perspectives are shaped at least in part by biographical or other contextual factors. Looking atothers'diagramscanopenupdifferentpossibilitiesforyoungpeopleintermsofhowthey thinkabouttheirownrelationshiptothepastandgivethemanewperspectiveontheirown identityandoutlook.Indeed,thepowerofthisapproachcanbefurtherenhancedifclassrooms aredigitallyconnectedtoclassroomsinothercountriesengaginginthesameactivity,inpart becauseitallowsprevailingandassumednationalnarrativestobecomevisible.