Haptic history : heads, hands and hearts

  • John P. Staats

Western Sydney University thesis: Doctoral thesis

Abstract

This thesis was prompted by the issue of widespread student disengagement in history classrooms. I argue that a key factor in student disengagement with school history is disciplinary history's pedagogic legacy as an ocular, text-focused intellectual pursuit. This is part of a broader disjunction between public and academic history. Ordinary people primarily make sense of the past through the materiality of things""through objects, artefacts, landscapes and their bodies""but this is not reflected in the way history is usually taught in schools. My research addresses this problem by developing a materialist model of history pedagogy"" 'haptic history'""that has been derived from a close analysis of two groups who employ materiality in their history praxis: school teachers, who self-identify as employing a materialist approach in their history teaching; and historical re-enactors/living historians. These groups are the focus of this study. They have an avowed educative goal and use the materiality of the past as both source and method, to construct historical knowledge, 'do' historical thinking and experience historical consciousness. I explore the materialist praxis of these groups using a qualitative methodology of surveys, in-depth interviews, auto-ethnography, focus groups and case studies. In analysis, I draw on Collingwood's idea of history, together with interdisciplinary and theoretical insights from the fields of archaeology, social anthropology, museum, performance and material culture studies, to unpick and analyse the way materiality is used in these contexts as forms of historical consciousness and historical thinking. The analysis is then used to construct a model of haptic history pedagogy, with guideposts to support teacher classroom praxis. In the process of building a haptic history model of pedagogy, my research makes broader arguments around materiality and history. I argue that materiality is a significant part of 'historical consciousness' and our sense of self as historical beings. I further conclude that the (co)agency of 'things' weave webs of entanglement and connection between people in the present and the past that are deeply connective, engaging and serve to foster kinaesthetic empathy. This conclusion warrants an expansion of current models of historical empathy beyond the cognitive and affective, to include the kinaesthetic dimension. My research makes a significant contribution to history pedagogy by demonstrating the importance of touch and embodiment as performative and experiential modes for knowing the past. I demonstrate that when the materiality of history is experienced synergistically through 'heads, hands and hearts', the historical sensation of ekstasis is facilitated. This research further contributes to issues of access and equity in history education; haptic history's materialist approach engages a wide range of learners, especially (but not exclusively) those who struggle to engage with traditional, text-heavy forms of history. Beyond history pedagogy, this study advances the case for disciplinary history to embrace the possibilities and opportunities inherent in interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the past. In venturing into the field of materiality, my research also raises significant questions around the co-agency of things in history, and in doing so joins others in prompting a reconsideration of an exclusively anthropocentric view of agency in the past.
Date of Award2019
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • history
  • study and teaching
  • methodology
  • haptic devices
  • motivation in education
  • Australia

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