2026-06-27 –, Room 106 (Seats 105)
This panel examines how historical perspective can be systematically designed, implemented, and analyzed in middle school world history classrooms in Korea. In an era of globalization, the ability to understand perspectives shaped by different historical contexts has become increasingly important. Although historical perspective is widely recognized as central to historical thinking, students often struggle to move beyond presentist or relativist interpretations.
We conceptualize historical perspective across three interrelated domains. Contemporaneous perspective refers to understanding how historical actors interpreted events within the social, political, and cultural conditions of their own time. Historiographical perspective concerns how later historians and interpreters construct differing accounts of the same event based on distinct questions, values, and evidentiary frameworks. Cross-temporal perspective involves comparing and synthesizing perspectives from different temporal positions, examining how interpretations shift across time.
Paper 1 presents the design principles of ten inquiry-based curriculum units built around widely used primary sources in Korean middle school textbooks. The materials articulate a staged progression across the three domains of perspective. Paper 2 analyzes 1,020 student responses generated through classroom implementation in ten schools, identifying patterns in students’ recognition and explanation of historical perspective. Paper 3 offers an in-depth analysis of cross-temporal perspective through close examination of students’ written conclusions on selected modern topics. Together, the panel clarifies the epistemic challenges of perspective learning and suggests instructional directions for world history education.
Historical perspective, middle school, curriculum student reasoning, progression
Designing Curriculum Materials for Historical Perspective Inquiry in Middle School World History
Abstract for Additional Participant 1:This paper presents the design and development of curriculum materials for historical perspective inquiry in Korean middle school world history. The materials are structured around three domains: Contemporaneous perspective, Historiographical perspective, and Cross-temporal perspective, forming a staged progression of increasing epistemic complexity. Ten inquiry units were developed using primary sources that frequently appear across middle school textbooks, including the Code of Hammurabi, the Declaration of Independence, and the Treaty of Versailles. Each unit integrates contextual scaffolds and structured inquiry questions to support source-based reasoning and perspective taking. The design aligns theoretical insights from historical thinking research with the practical constraints of textbook-centered classrooms, providing a coherent framework for systematic perspective instruction.
Title for Additional Participant 2:Student Reasoning about Historical Perspective: Evidence from Curriculum-Based Inquiry in Korean Middle School World History
Abstract for Additional Participant 2:Building on the curriculum materials presented in Paper 1, this study analyzes how students reason about historical perspective after engaging with the ten inquiry units. Implemented in ten middle schools, the materials generated 1,020 written responses. An inductive qualitative analysis focused on two areas: recognition of historical perspective and explanation of differences in historical perspective. While most students acknowledged the presence of multiple perspectives, many relied on present-centered judgments or descriptive contrasts. Fewer responses demonstrated contextualized reasoning characteristic of Contemporaneous or Historiographical perspective. The findings reveal both the affordances and limits of scaffolded curriculum materials and highlight the epistemic shifts required for more sophisticated perspective understanding in middle school world history classrooms.
Title for Additional Participant 3:Deepening the Analysis of Cross-Temporal Perspective: A Close Examination of Middle School Students’ Reasoning
Abstract for Additional Participant 3:This paper offers an in-depth analysis of Cross-temporal perspective within the curriculum framework introduced in Paper 1 and examined broadly in Paper 2. Drawing on 263 written responses from five middle schools, the study investigates how students construct evaluative conclusions when comparing perspectives from different temporal positions. Focusing on inquiry units on Chartism, the Treaty of Versailles, and Mein Kampf, the analysis uses a two-dimensional framework examining foregrounded temporal position and construction of temporal stance. Many students privileged retrospective or present-oriented judgments, while fewer sustained balanced engagement with Contemporaneous perspectives. Although some responses juxtaposed multiple viewpoints, most resolved tensions hierarchically rather than maintaining epistemic complexity. The findings clarify specific challenges in fostering Cross-temporal perspective in middle school world history instruction.
Mimi Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of History Education, College of Education at Seoul National University. Her research focuses on teachers’ use of primary sources and inquiry-based instruction. Drawing on nationwide teacher surveys, in-depth interviews, and lesson log analyses, she has shown that teachers vary widely in how they conceptualize primary sources, and that these beliefs strongly influence classroom practice. Her more recent projects investigate teacher factors—such as historical thinking orientations, views on the purpose of school history, and teaching experience—that affect the use of activities, sources, and inquiry. Building on these findings, she is currently leading the development of educative curriculum materials designed to support teachers’ knowledge growth and help them bridge the gap between disciplinary history and school history in the era of digital transformation.
forthcoming
Sumin Shin is a PhD candidate in History Education at Seoul National University. Her research examines how historical writing—particularly source-based writing—is assessed in teachers’ classroom practices, and how writing mediates students’ historical thinking and meaning-making between the past and the present. Her interests also extend to history education beyond school, especially museums as sites where historical understanding is produced through interpretation, narrative, and engagement with material traces of the past.
Sebin Cheon is a PhD candidate in History Education at Seoul National University, where she also completed her BA and MA She has taught pre-service history teachers. Her research asks what it means to know history amid contemporary challenges to historical consciousness, and how such knowing shapes students as subjects who interpret, judge, and respond to others across time. She is also committed to inquiry-based history instruction that nurtures students' capacity to think historically and engage critically with the past. Her publications explore how colligatory concepts structure historical understanding and how contextualization functions as a pedagogical problem in history classrooms.