Research approach and research questions

In my doctoral thesis, provisionally entitled ‘What pupils imagine slavery to be: An investigation into historical thinking’, I am examining subject-specific conceptions and learners’ conceptions regarding the topic of slavery within the framework of the didactic reconstruction research model. A comparison of the concepts identified aims to highlight similarities and correspondences, as well as potential barriers to learning. The aim of the thesis is to develop didactic guidelines based on an empirically grounded reconstruction of the topic. My specific research interest lies in investigating how specialised subject specialists, on the one hand, and learners, on the other, explain, substantiate, weigh up, specify and contextualise equality and inequality within the historical context of slavery. The following questions structure the research area:

• What implicit theories do pupils hold regarding the origins and justification of slavery (and systems of slavery)?
• Which everyday experiences and structural-scientific concepts, as represented in specialised scholarship and didactics, inform these theories?
• Are there frequently occurring or contradictory patterns of interpretation?

Data collection and analysis

In line with the model of didactic reconstruction, I apply the recursive method of surveying disciplinary conceptions (specialist publications, including a selection of recently introduced history textbooks for lower secondary level) and surveying learners’ conceptions in individual interviews.

The empirical part of my work on learners’ perspectives consists of twelve qualitative individual interviews (material-supported, semi-standardised structured interviews according to Scheele/Groeben) and accompanying questionnaires with Year 9 pupils in Oldenburg. For the subject-specific perspective, texts by authors from seven school history textbooks, amongst other sources, are analysed. The evaluation of both data sets is carried out using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring, with particular attention to reference and semantic meaning. Qualitative content analysis, which is predominantly used in social research, enables a controlled reduction and analysis of the available verbal data in four steps.
For the analysis of school textbooks, this means that, following the preliminary work of scanning relevant text passages, a tabular analysis of the text is carried out. In the first phase – paraphrasing – the text is divided into units of meaning or units of analysis. A unit of analysis may consist of as few as one word, but usually comprises one to three sentences.
In the second phase – generalisation – the existing paraphrases are summarised, passages with identical meanings are removed, and all paraphrases are standardised to a single level of abstraction. At this stage, text-structuring features such as qualifying particles, rhetorical questions and the like are removed in order to highlight the core content of the statements.
The third phase of reduction further reduces the volume of text, as statements on the same subject areas are summarised and structured (e.g. all the causes of slavery mentioned in the textbook).
In the final phase, the reduced texts are coded and explained in line with the research question. A code should, as far as possible, summarise the theory of slavery (for example, regarding causes, characteristics or similar) in a single keyword or, where necessary, a half-sentence. The codes are derived both deductively and inductively. Some arise from the research questions, whilst others are developed from the material itself. Taken together, all the codes represent the theoretical framework of the work in question or of the interviewee. These theories are explained within the overall context. In doing so, ambiguous, contradictory or otherwise (linguistically) conspicuous passages (e.g. in the case of individual neologisms or extensive use of foreign words) are given particular attention in the paraphrase, as they provide fruitful starting points for the overall interpretation. In so-called contextual analyses, the textbook or interview text is related to other statements within the overall text, and the semantic scope of individual formulations is also examined.
I am currently in the process of analysing the data at hand. Whilst exercising all due caution at this stage of the analysis, the following preliminary findings can be drawn from the pupils’ statements:

• What is striking is a general tendency to de-specify historical events, combined with the interpretation and explanation of historical phenomena based on everyday experience (e.g. the ‘shopping’ and ‘trading’ scripts for the topic of ‘slave auctions’)
• Contrary to subject-specific differentiation, many of the pupils interviewed appear to favour a prototypical conception of American plantation slavery, which is partly based on a notion of ‘civilisation versus naivety/backwardness’.
• This conception appears to be rooted in a clear concept of progress as an ongoing development for the better, which is frequently linked to the simplified two-part temporal framework of ‘then and now’.

With regard to the portrayal of slavery in school textbooks, the following observations can be made so far:

• Here, too, an inherent concept of progress and development is discernible, from which, in some cases, problematic conclusions are drawn.
• Economic aspects of enslavement are often at the forefront of these accounts (particularly in the case of American plantation slavery).
• With regard to antiquity, only a few reasons for enslavement (e.g. war) are sometimes cited, which more frequently emphasise inequality rather than equality between slave-owners and slaves.

For my thesis I have chosen Slavery as an example to examine how learners perceive and explain equality and inequality in historical contexts. The major issues to be addressed in the study are:

• Which implicit theories do pupils hold regarding the causes of slavery?
• How do their everyday experiences influence their implicit theories?
• What kind of historical interpretation patterns and preconceived ideas have youths developed with respect to slavery?

Using the model of didactical reconstruction as a basis for my iterative approach, I will compile and compare subject-specific conceptions as well as learners' perspectives in order to develop a didactical framework for the teaching of history. The hermeneutic analysis of historical conceptions of youths will be based on representative scientific publications and schoolbooks currently used in history classes. The study will mainly explore how these publications deal with the topic of antique and modern slavery in the American South in the 18th an 19th century.

In the empirical part of my study I will analyse twelve individual interviews partly standardised (based on additional material given to the learners). These interviews were hold with pupils in 9th grade attending schools in Oldenburg (grammar school and comprehensive school). The method to be applied is Mayring's qualitative content analysis; special consideration will be given to the semantic analysis of key passages. The learners' principal conceived ideas which form part of their historical knowledge and thinking will be visualised in a concept map.

Sylke Bergau & Hilke Günther-Arndt (in preparation): Schülervorstellungen zur Sklaverei: Von der semantischen Analyse zur Visualisierung von Wissensstrukturen, in: Harald Gropengießer, Marc Gerhard Ulrich Kattmann (eds.): Fachliches Lernen erforschen - Handbuch zur fachdidaktischen Lehr- Lernforschung - Didaktische Rekonstruktion.