An oral history of a field trip: a study of participants' historical imagination in "Action" and "Artifact within action"
| dc.contributor.author | Green, Vicki Ann | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Fowler, R.H. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-07-03T21:28:21Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-07-03T21:28:21Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 1992 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-07-03 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Curriculum and Instruction | |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy Ph.D. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This study investigated former students' historical imaginations and recollections emanating from a visit to an historic site as an extension of the curriculum in social studies in grade five a decade ago. Historical imagination was defined as placing children within past "actions" or experiences of history through heritage to discern for themselves the thoughts and experiences of people of the past. The following question guided this study: What was the nature of historical imagination constructed from participants' recollections through "action" and "artifact within action" based on an extended field trip to an historic site in the recent past? "Action" was defined as vigorous activity of children involved in learning through experience, such as panning for gold. "Artifact within action" referred to objects illustrative of human workmanship, such as those found in historic sites. Ten years ago, ten and eleven year old students participated in historic site ‘interpretation’ programs including a court trial, school house activities, gold panning, graveyard exploration, household chores and carpentry tasks. They explored the reconstructed townsite of Barkerville where these activities occurred. The investigation of historical imagination was not intended as an evaluation of the educational programs offered at Barkerville, nor was it intended to generalize these findings to other historical sites. The author involved young adults to construct memories of shared events from their experiences of a field trip to Barkerville. In spite of efforts to determine efficacy of education through field trips, little has been written about the stimulation of historical imagination through this process. The author’s definition of historical imagination formed the foundation for this study. In addition, the concept of shared voice or the interactive memory of former students and their teacher through conversation was developed for use through the methodology of oral history. Hermeneutics provided the interpretive instrument for constructing and understanding the narrative expressed through participants' conversation. The interview lent itself to the expression of former students' stories recollecting "action" and "artifact within action." Thematic analysis was used to interpret the conversational data. Three main themes emerged from the data: recollecting feelings, creating images and pictures and experiencing the past. Within the theme recollecting feelings, three references emerged: feelings of emotional involvement, "the actual feeling" and feeling closeness with the group. A salient conclusion of this study is that participants' historical response was evident over time, expressed as the "actual feeling" and utilized in the active construction of meaning through vivid recollections, which employed historical imagination to explain and extend historical understandings. The constructs most evident underlying historical imagination were interaction, free play, provocation, the supernatural and engagement. Furthermore, gender recollection was a significant construct and, as a result, woman's past emerged as a reference within the theme experiencing the past. | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/9573 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.subject | School field trips | en_US |
| dc.subject | Oral history | en_US |
| dc.subject | Imagination | en_US |
| dc.title | An oral history of a field trip: a study of participants' historical imagination in "Action" and "Artifact within action" | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |