Title of Presentation: Children’s Temporal Cognition and the History Curriculum of the Primary School Eileen O’ Sullivan, Department of Learning, Society and Religious Education

  Examine how the history curriculum embraces the challenges of a globalised world;  To focus specifically on how children’s temporal understanding is fostered through the history curriculum. Focus of my presentation

Curricular changes

  History is now part of the Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE) Programme History in the revised curriculum Geography History Science

 Key Skills in History – Working as a Historian Developing Empathy Synthesis and Communication Using Evidence Cause and Effect Change and Continuity Time and Chronology

  Revised Curriculum of Primary School (1999) – History extended as a subject to the infant level;  Based on a premise that young children’s temporal cognition can be fostered and developed from a young age;  Recent research into teaching and learning in history supports this decision;  Hoodless - UK-based research (1996, 2002); Freidman (since 1982); Harner (1982);  Data derived from a recent study of Irish primary school children (2012) provides emphatic evidence that young children are capable of embracing aspects of temporal cognition, even in the early years. History in the Infant Classes

  Connecting the child with the past;  Contingent upon the child having a “sense” of time;  From the infant level, children display an emerging concept of temporality;  Recent research exposes the multi-faceted, complex nature of temporality;  Also exposes the challenge for classroom practice and the professional development of teachers;  Central to the development of mature historical understanding. Temporality

 The complex nature of temporality is understated and barely recognised in the curriculum:  “children of this age-range have “… a very imperfect sense of time” (p. 3).  children’s sense of time and chronology can be aided by “… some carefully chosen history work”(p. 4). They conclude that while young children’s sense of time may not develop automatically, there is merit in teaching time and chronology concepts at this level. This approach to temporality may be responsible for the inadequate provision for its development in history curriculum. Temporality in the revised curriculum

Key research question: How do young children conceptualise time? Series of case studies conducted in two schools Study aimed to present an accurate, illustrative selection of responses from a typical cross-section of primary pupils in urban and rural schools.

  The data drew upon responses from children of mixed gender, mixed ability and varied cultures in two schools.  School A is situated in an urban, densely populated area, with DEIS status, and single stream classes of mixed gender and ethnic diversity, with some speaking English as an additional language.  School B is situated in a rural setting in the county, with multi-grade classes of mixed gender, a greater proportion of middle-class and professional families, relatively little ethnic variation and all children speaking English as a first language. Methodology

  Cases of 12 children in each of two schools were investigated:  2 children at Junior Infant level, 2 at Third Class level and 2 at sixth class level in each school.  Stories were carefully chosen which were temporally rich and which belong to a genre that “play with time”, using it non-chronologically as a literary device. In each story, child characters travel in and out of dream time or imaginary time that co-exists with the measured time of the adult world.  Children’s conversations about the time aspects of the stories provided a rich source of data. Methodology

 Multifaceted nature of temporal cognition Children’s narratives about time were analysed from two perspectives:

Cognitive- developmental dimensions of temporality reflected in children’s conversations The emerging nature of the production of temporal terms The production of conventional temporal terms The development of sequential understanding, temporal order and a cognition of chronology The cognition of temporal distance in the past and temporal location The relationship between autobiographical memory and temporal understanding The relationship between the development of temporal cognition and causal cognition Awareness and use of anachronies in time Understanding parallel time Ability to engage in temporal updating

  A key dimension of the data focussed on aspects of the children’s conversations which demonstrated how embedded they were in socio- cultural interactions;  The study also examined children’s personal experiences of time;  6 themes emerged in the study. Sociocultural influences

Significant socio- cultural influences on children's interpretation of time Theme 1 The significance of family in children’s interpretation of time Theme 2 The significance of nature in children’s interpretation of time Theme 3 The significance of school in children’s interpretation of time Theme 4 The significance of the immediate social environment on children’s interpretation of time Theme 5 The significance of other resources in children’s interpretation of time Theme 6 Emotions triggered by various times

 “Anachronies” in time  Analepsis, prolepsis, ellipsis. Context:  I: So, what’s happening here in the story?  C: He caught the Salmon of Knowledge.

  Confirmed the complex, multi-faceted nature of temporality;  Emphatic evidence that young children can embrace aspects of temporality;  Evidence of the developmental nature of temporality;  Key divergences evident in the level of linguistic competence of the children in both schools as it related to temporality. Key Findings of Study

Study aimed to establish how the history curriculum contributes to children’s temporal cognition, as mediated by textbooks. Used a content analysis model and developed a unique rubric, informed by the theories of Krippendorf (1980), Strahan and Herlihy (1985), Cole (1988) and Downe- Wamboldt (1992).

Temporality in history textbooks Detailed content analysis of textbooks and workbooks at three distinct class levels (n=14) - Junior Infants - Third Class - Sixth Class Comprehensive review focussing on -the specific nature of each of the educational activities outlined in the texts (n=402); -the level of cognitive complexity of the activity; -the potential of each activity for the development of children’s temporal cognition. Determination of whether the centrality of temporal cognition is reflected in the textbooks

  Most of the texts poorly reflect the principles of the history curriculum, described by Porter (2004) as the “content standards”, especially as they relate to temporality;  There is a poor fit between the textbooks, the cultural knowledge of the children and their linguistic competence;  Key divergences were evident in the approaches to temporality within each age level, and from one level to another within a series. Key Findings of Study

 Provision for temporality and chronology in textbooks at three levels

Acknowledge and support teachers in recognising and addressing the complex nature of temporality

  A thorough analysis of the implementation of the history curriculum is long overdue; no such critique has been undertaken in the intervening years since its introduction;  Evaluate the effectiveness of the provision for temporal cognition in the existing history curriculum;  Carefully evaluate the interpretations of curriculum principles by publishers and textbook authors; Meeting the challenges of a globalised world

  The development of children’s linguistic competence in this area is a basic prerequisite leading to the development of mature historical understanding;  Propose extending the recent audit of language objectives in the Primary School Curriculum (1999) and language goals in Aistear (2009) to take cognisance of the contribution of the history curriculum. Meeting the challenges of a globalised world