"Coming to Know Others": Using a Dual-Narrative Approach to Foster Empathy, Identity, and Historical Thinking - A Case Study of History Teaching and Learning in a Conflict Environment

Abstract

Empathy is critical to reconciliation efforts in conflict environments, as well as to effective functioning of diverse democratic societies. Helping students develop empathy is considered a responsibility of schools, and of history/social studies educators in particular. However, fostering empathy in history classrooms remains controversial, and how to do so poorly understood, particularly when the historical perspectives being discussed challenge aspects of students’ identities. This study investigated students’ empathic and historical thinking in a unique K-12 bilingual school in Jerusalem, Israel where contrasting Palestinian and Jewish narratives of national history are taught side-by-side to students of both identity backgrounds in the context of an intractable conflict. In addition to students’ thinking, I examined how their teachers reconcile classroom empathic, identity, and critical thinking goals and address pedagogical challenges posed by such an approach. Data sources included teacher interviews, classroom observations, and five original written tasks. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, study findings suggest that students can think empathically, even regarding highly contested historical issues. They also suggest that strong identity affiliation may not inhibit (and might even encourage) empathy. Furthermore, also in contrast to much of current theory, findings suggest empathic and identity instructional goals may be reconcilable with historical thinking, and that a dual-narrative instructional approach may foster such reconciliation. However, teaching for empathy in this way presents numerous pedagogical challenges including how to affirm students’ identities without essentializing identity differences and how to personalize narratives while depersonalizing responsibility for the conflict. I describe strategies that the teachers have developed to address these and other challenges. I conclude that if pursued carefully, a dual-narrative instructional approach may have significant benefits for in-conflict societies where reconciled narratives are impossible and where such an approach may contribute to rehumanizing the Other, an essential first step in reconciliation. Furthermore, this study contributes to the history and conflict education literatures by reconceptualizing narratives as legitimate instructional tools and history instruction as involving two distinct dimensions of decision making – narrative approach and pedagogical approach. Choices along each dimension reflect epistemological assumptions and contribute interactively to students’ empathic, identity, and historical thinking outcomes.