Perspective: In Teaching History and in Current Events
Image: Historical Thinking Skills. Image is in the public domain, but one can learn more about Historical Thinking Skills at the Historical Thinking Project: https://historicalthinking.ca/
Today -- Friday, May 21 -- here in Addis Ababa, state-aligned media and various political actors have called for protests around the city against, what they are calling, foreign interference in Ethiopia's domestic affairs and state sovereignty. This comes in response to a few different issues, including statements from the United States and the European Union on the upcoming national elections here, but it's primarily in response to the situation in northern Ethiopia in the region of Tigray. Various international entities, including the United States, have condemned the on-going military operations happening in the Tigray region where the Ethiopian federal government, back in November, initiated military action to oust the Tigray regional government of the TPLF. The campaign that started in November was accompanied by a communications black-out that lasted for all of Tigray for a month, and then has continued in parts of Tigray up until now. Over the past couple of months, as humanitarian aid and journalists have been admitted into some parts of the region (though still with many obstacles and roadblocks), increasing reports of atrocities, on-going fighting and a major food crisis are coming out of the region.
Also today -- Friday, May 21 -- a ceasefire has just gone into effect between Israel and Hamas after 11 days of intense conflict, centered primarily on Gaza, but that was sparked by tensions in East Jerusalem (if one can ever point to a single spark in this on-going conflict), and also saw an escalation of tensions within Israel between Jewish and Arab citizens in several cities. Hopefully this ceasefire will hold, although that is far from certain.
Weighing into the histories and politics of either of these conflicts is not my intent with this post. Instead, I'm reminded today of a class I had with my 9th grade Social Studies students back in November. The curriculum of the 9th grade Social Studies class at my school is thematically connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each of our units is connected to a specific SDG and explores problems and solutions around that SDG through a specific Social Studies disciplinary lens. Our second unit, the one we were in the midst of in November, is connected to SDG #16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. For this unit, we use the Social Studies discipline of history to understand the lack of peace and justice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while also looking at attempts at a just and peaceful solution to the conflict such as the Oslo Accords and other efforts towards a two-state solution. After gaining some historical knowledge of the conflict as it developed in the twentieth century, students engage in a history-research project that requires them to investigate and evaluate a number of primary documents to understand why any sense of a peace process on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to have died in the past couple of decades.
On November 17, the Ethiopian federal government called for a mid-day moment of silence to honor the soldiers of the Ethiopian National Defense Force who were engaged in the military campaign in Tigray. The time of this moment of observation happened to coincide with my grade 9 Social Studies class, and the day aligned exactly with the class I intended to introduce and discuss the history concept of "perspective," which students would need to consider as they evaluated various primary documents. I felt that I could not let pass the teachable moment of these alignments, but I also wanted to make sure to choose my words very carefully and speak precisely. I decided to address the coincidence in a statement to introduce the class, before we moved into practicing the skill of source evaluation. I quickly wrote out the following and read it directly at the start of class. This lesson on perspective seems pertinent again today.
Statement on Perspective - November 17, 2020
Students,
In class today we are going to discuss a couple of major concepts in the study of history. One of those concepts is “Causation,” which I will address a little later in class. The other is the concept of “Perspective.” I want to address this concept right now at the start of class and I want you to listen very carefully to what I have to say.
Perspective first refers to one’s “point-of-view,” meaning the position in time and space from which a person sees and experiences the world. Humans always have a limited point of view. We cannot ever see the world other than through our own eyes. This means that we each see and experience the world around us differently. My current point-of-view is from the front of the classroom in S119, staring at a group of 9th graders in desks, at 10:15am on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Because of this point-of-view, I am limited in my ability to know what is going on in S118. I’m also limited in my ability to know what is going on across town on Bole right now, and I am limited in my ability to know what is happening in other parts of the country, say, in Tigray. I am also limited to time, meaning that my ability to know what happened yesterday is also limited because I am not there in that time, and the further back in time, the more limited my personal point-of-view.
There are implications to the fact that, as humans, we have a limited point of view. It means that when we hear about what is happening in a time and space that is other than our own experience, we need to make sure that there is evidence available for us to trust that information. Sometimes the information is not that important, and so it doesn’t matter that much. However, other times the information is very important, and so it’s essential that we always look for the evidence, and test to see if the evidence is reliable, before we just accept that something is true when we weren’t there.
A second part of perspective relates to individual and group bias. Bias refers to our tendency to pre-judge something or someone, regardless of the evidence, because of our past experiences and the influence of the people around us. Even when we try very hard to avoid bias, we are all influenced by how we grew up, what we were taught, the people around us who we trust like family and friends, etc. We may not be intentionally biased, but it’s the nature of being human that we are influenced by our experiences, our family, our friends, and our culture. This is another element of perspective. We must try very hard to recognize our own biases, and we must recognize that others have them as well. When we get information about something in a time or space outside our own personal point-of-view, it’s important for us to consider the bias from which that information comes and how that may influence that information.
A third part of perspective relates to motivation. Sometimes people have an intentional motivation to portray information in a certain way so as to influence your thinking. We all do this all the time. You may provide personal information to, or withhold personal information from, your friends and classmates because you have a motivation for them to see you a certain way. Sometimes this arises to an even higher and more significant level, where individuals or groups in power will portray information in a certain way to influence people and further their goals in power. Sometimes this involves providing only partial information, withholding information, or even providing misinformation. We have a word for this: it’s called propaganda. You’ve also been reading books in English class recently where the control of information for propaganda is a key theme (Fahrenheit 451 and The Book Thief).
Perspective is a vital concept for historians. The historian who is investigating a past event and trying to figure out what happened will need to investigate many different sources including documents that were written at the time, photographs from the time, newspapers published at the time, eye-witness testimony from the time, etc. As the historian does this investigating, they must always remember the concept of perspective. First, they must remember that they themselves were not there and so their point-of-view is limited. Second, they must recognize that the source, even from the time period, will always contain some level of bias that may influence the accuracy of its account. Third, they must always consider the motivation of the source and whether or not that source had an interest to distort or control information in some way.
As we investigate further the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we must recognize this concept of perspective. As we ask questions such as: What caused the conflict? Who is to blame for the conflict? Why have efforts for peace fallen apart? -- we must also recognize the very complex nature of perspectives related to this conflict. At the broadest level, there is the Israeli perspective and there is the Palestinian perspective, but even within those two large categories, there are many different perspectives, some of which we will explore further today and tomorrow.
I also wanted to address this concept at the start of class because of the situation happening currently here in our own country of Ethiopia. Unfortunately, Ethiopia is currently in a state of conflict and so our topic of peace & justice is suddenly all the more real in our everyday lives. I love this country. I love the history, the culture, the people, the landscape, and the languages. I am very pro-Ethiopia. Even though it is not my home of birth, nor of citizenship, I consider it my adopted home. But over the past couple of weeks, some very difficult and tragic events have been taking place in the northern region of Tigray. In simplest terms, this is a conflict between the federal government, and the leaders of the regional government in Tigray, who are part of a group who long had power over all of Ethiopia. Both of these sides have their own perspective on why this conflict is happening and what is actually happening on the ground. Within these two broad categories, there are then many different perspectives. It is very complex and there is a lot of uncertainty. Added to this uncertainty, there has been a 2 week communication black-out across Tigray, which makes it very difficult to get information about what is happening there. One thing seems very clear, there are many people suffering in the meantime, including people who have been killed, and people who have been displaced from their homes.
If we are to learn from the history concept of perspective, we must remember: 1. We have a limited point of view, which means we are not in Tigray right now and have limited understanding of what is happening there. 2. People have bias, and that influences their sharing and understanding of the events happening in Tigray right now. 3. There is a great deal of political motivation on all sides of this conflict and all sides are very intentionally trying to shape the information to benefit their position. This doesn’t mean there is no right or wrong in this; it just means that I encourage you to investigate the evidence and consider perspectives and remember that regardless of right or wrong, there are many real human beings, who aren’t the political leaders, who are suffering because of this.
The Ethiopian federal government has called for a moment of silence at 11:30am today in support of the national military forces fighting in this conflict. At 11:30 today, I will provide you with the opportunity for a moment of silent reflection. I personally will not be observing that moment of silence, not because I don’t have a concern for the soldiers fighting, but rather because I do not support this conflict period, and I am concerned for all those who are suffering because of it. You are welcome to observe the moment of silence. If you do, I hope you will think of the lesson of perspective. I have set my phone alarm for 11:30. When that alarm goes off, you do what you feel you need to do with that minute. My alarm will then go off again at 11:31 and we will all move on.
