Professor's Journal Article About Historical Empathy Most Read in 2014

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Jason Endacott

Jason Endacott wrote last year about his research on the process high school students undertake when they make cognitive and affective connections to historical figures in order to enhance their understanding of history. His article was the most read in the journal Theory & Research in Social Education.

Endacott is an assistant professor of social studies education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Arkansas. He joined the faculty of the College of Education and Health Professions in 2011.

His article titled "Negotiating the Process of Historical Empathy" was recently announced as the most read of the year in the journal published by Taylor & Francis. Theory & Research in Social Education is the official publication of the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies. The College and University Faculty Assembly is an organization made up of university researchers in the field of social studies education.

In his study, Endacott instructed high school students about Harry Truman's decision to deploy atomic bombs at the end of World War II. Materials included first-person narratives from Truman to help students humanize the past and see how Truman may have seen his present. Students initially experienced difficulty separating their minds from modern society and themselves, but as the study continued they became more analytical of the choices Truman made, Endacott said.

The success of this article led to several invitations to review manuscripts on historical inquires for other journals, Endacott said.

He also published an article in the Journal of Social Studies Education titled "Historical Empathy and Pedagogical Reasoning," which investigates a teacher's pedagogical reasoning during a first attempt to engage her students in historical empathy. Endacott has another article under review with the same journal titled "Historical Inquiry and the Limits of CCSS." It examines the depth of students' written historical argumentation after engaging in historical empathy and how the depth of their writing might be missed when evaluated with an instrument based on the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.