The Reconstruction of the Past through Images: An Iconographic Analysis on the Historical Imagination Usage Skills of Primary School Pupils.

Abstract The aim of this research is to understand how sixth grade students use their imagination skills in the historical thinking process and, by doing so, how they construct the past. In this respect, first, an exhibition/museum was visited in the context of social studies during history lessons in a primary school in Kadikoy district in Istanbul. Then, the students were asked to draw their construction of the past in their imagination using historical sources. Nine products/illustrations were selected as a sample according to purposive sampling method. Resulting data were analyzed using the document analysis technique which is one of the qualitative research approaches. As a result of this analysis, although some anachronistic data were found, it was seen that most students have the ability to reconstruct the past appropriate to the historical context using the historical sources, which are effective in the process of disciplining students' historical imagination. The pupils have the ability to use their former knowledge and experiences during their imagination and thinking processes. It is asserted that the supportive role of the teacher plays a key role in both preparing students to overcome the obstacles that they face while they are in the process of historical thinking through the usage of historical sources and basing these kinds of skills on a healthy pedagogical ground. Key Words Primary Pupils, Historical Thinking, Historical Imagination, Construction of the Past. Historical Imagination and Historical Learning The debate about history education, began in the 1970s, brings a radical suggestion (Thompson, 1984 cited in Yapici, 2006, p. 26) that the education of history should aim at improving the main skills to understand historical questioning methods and processes. And, this suggestion has become a generally accepted and practiced method of history teaching. According to this approach, which states that the methodological skills of history should be given to the students, it is accepted that the historical information will more successfully develop by doing history and in this way doing history will have the same meaning with learning history (Peck, 2005; Yapici, 2006, pp.22-3). Such a learning process signifies that acquiring the ability to re-construct the past on the pedagogic platform can only be made possible by taking advantage of the academic field (Nichol, 2004, p. 21; Stradling, 2003, p. viii). Such an approach, inevitably, needs to work with historical sources, inquiry and thinking abilities, and the reconstruction of the past as a historian can be possible through experiencing and developing the process of historical thinking/ understanding/imagination. Stanford (1994, pp. 119-20) mentioned the experience of some volunteers who accepted to live under the conditions of the Iron Age for twelve months for a research project on reconstructing the past. According to this study, although they were similar to their ancestors in the physical aspects of their lives, they were not so successful in rebuilding the mental world. This interesting experience is meaningful in proving that it is not possible to reconstruct the past and the intentions/thoughts of people in the past exactly as they were. Moreover, this experience reveals the fact that the knowledge of the past and its subjects can be inferred by intellectual processes based on a mental platform. The past, through the clues it left and by methodological processes, can be interpreted / constructed differently by historians. As a matter of fact, the past is past and it can be brought back only by historians through different publications such as books, articles, documents, and etc., not by performance (Jenkins, 1997, p. 19). All of these experiences and views are meaningful for signifying the importance of the development of historical thinking abilities in understanding and reconstructing the past. These notions in the fields of philosophy of history and history writing are reflected on history teaching approaches in pedagogical platforms. …