The other type of exhibitionism

"[T]he exhibition of historical information is inseparable from interpretation, and museums and historic sites reflect a host of social, cultural, economic and ideological underpinnings" (Barton and Levstik, Teaching History for the Common Good, p. 121).

The exhibitionist is a familiar sight to virtually everyone in most professions. As the anecdote at the beginning of the chapter suggests, academic exhibitionists are people who display their knowledge of information largely for their own benefit, often unconcerned if others are listening or not. While the exhibitionist might derive a great deal of pleasure from showing how much they know, it often prevents others in a classroom setting from actively participating (or participating at all), and can make others feel inferior. Teachers who are prone to lecture for an entire class period are similarly guilty of educational exhibitionism. The main problem with this pedagogical approach is that it rapidly bores and disengages students, who can easily conclude that they simply need to recite information back to the teacher if they want a good grade.

Thankfully, most institutions devoted to exhibiting information (aka a museum) are aware of this. Generally, they make an effort to provide context for their articles from the past, but of course, it is the institution that is acting as a gatekeeper, and they have total control over how information is presented. Basically, what that means is that it is impossible to present information objectively in an exhibition. Even with those that have less context (such as the example of the Scottish folk museum in the chapter), museums display a selection bias in what objects they choose to present. When museums present information, they can determine not only what people see, but how they are most likely to perceive it.

Connection to practice:

With respect to teaching, thinking about exhibitions (both in museums and in the classroom) is extremely important. When individuals love or are interested in something, the tendency is to want to talk about it. Ideally when we do this we are speaking to people that are interested and engaged, but in a classroom full of students this is not always the case. As such, when we exhibit or project our knowledge, it is often for our own benefit and not for that of our students. Many times, instructors will mistake their own enthusiasm for a topic for that of their students.

Outside the classroom, however, teachers should realize that, properly done, a field trip can be a valuable pedagogical experience. The field trip allows students to see historical artifacts firsthand and can provide a valuable reminder that history is not an abstract discipline - it is as real today as it was in the past, and as such very relevant. However, if students are not provided proper context and meaningful activities with which to accompany the trip, it will simply become time away from the classroom under the false pretense of learning - a literal waste of time.

As with film and other classroom activities, a field trip should have scaffolded activities accompanying it. An example might be a graphic organizer, or guiding questions that students complete while in the museum. One might also take advantage of the frequent use of multimedia and film in museums, encouraging students to think about these more critically. Without these supplementary activities and the valuable context they provide, a field trip can rapidly turn into a field day for students, so caution and extensive preparation must be used. However, when all is said and done: "[I]n its role of providing service to others, we find an admirable use for the exhibition of historical information, and we believe such displays can be an important part of educational endeavors, whether inside or outside formal institutions" (Barton and Levstik, p. 124).

The role of narrative in our classrooms

"Narrative is one tool students use to make sense of history, as they take the variety of historical people and events they have learned about, both in and out of school, and collapse them into a simplified cause-and-effect chain with each of the expected elements. Perhaps the most important affordance of this tool is that it aids students in their search for coherence in history" (Barton and Levstik, p. 136).

This chapter on narrative structure in the history classroom was an excellent and illuminating piece of work. This passage in particular allows the reader to understand the rationale that many teachers use for the narrative structure of their curriculum. Essentially, the narrative serves as a large-scale work of metacognition, whereby the students can contextualize and simplify the content, even individualize their understanding. The argument is also that this would make the content more engaging and accessible, thereby promoting greater retention by students. This argument is not totally without merit, and indeed the use of narrative in the American history classroom is so ubiquitous that most of us actually have trouble conceiving an alternative form of teaching history. As the passage above reminds us, it really is a grand way to string together different effects, examine causality and contextualize different events.

As beautiful as it may seem, not all is well with the narrative structure. The most obvious drawback has to do with the fact that it has the effect of simplifying everything that is taught. A number of studies cited in the text repeatedly showed that all the historical knowledge students showed was in the context of the narrative. Interestingly, students did recall basic facts, but often out of order and always in the context of the narrative. Therefore, it is obvious that there is some danger in using the narrative as a framework for the history classroom, but most American teachers see it as inevitable and would continue to frame their classes around it.

In an instructional context, it is very obvious to see how the narrative structure could be used. Basically, it works as a sort of meta-instruction, a kind of bare bones instruction in to which students and teachers alike can insert information. However, the teacher needs to be constantly assessing and monitoring the narrative to ensure that the information taken away is not only correct, but that it also contains a certain depth for students to grasp. Furthermore, it needs to emphasized that there are different types of narratives for consideration. Not only are we dealing with the overall narrative of the class (for example, that of European or American history), but we are also dealing with a number of smaller narratives that will complement the principal one. For instance, narratives about the lives of individuals can provide insight into the lives of those who changed their society, on the one hand, and on the other can provide insight into the daily lives of the average person during a certain time period.