| This project was interested in understanding the relationships in a history classroom that supported or curtailed the possibilities for meaningful learning. Specifically, meaningful learning in history is learning that has significance to students' lives now and in the future, both inside and outside of school, and with interpretations of the past that align with their own sense of familial or community history in and for the wider-world. Based in education psychology and critical theories of education, specifically the work of Novak, hooks, and Freire, this work attempts to understand if a poststructural approach to history education would support students' meaningful learning in history class.;This research demonstrated that while the Historic Space strategy provided opportunities to negotiate meaning of historical narratives, an element needed for meaningful learning, an emotional climate based on positive classroom relationships is needed for students to commit to learning in history and to do so in ways that have significance for their lives both inside and outside of school. While students expressed great desire to learn history, students also found many of their learning opportunities prohibitive for a deep connection with historical narratives. While interested in wanting to provide meaningful learning opportunities for their students, teachers often enacted "curricular roles" between teacher and student that lessened the opportunities available for meaningful learning. This finding suggests that greater attention needs to be paid to the emotional environment for teaching and learning and the ways in which teachers can support students' more significant connections to history.;Using a design-based research methodology – a synergy of participatory action research, ethnography, and grounded theory geared specifically toward classroom-research – I worked in four high-school history classes over the course of one unit, talking to and collaborating with teachers and students on a poststructural approach to history education that I have been developing since 2005. In a classroom environment, it was hypothesized that this approach, Historic Space, could be a framework that could provide more meaningful learning opportunities for students in their history class. |
