Effects of Facing History and Ourselves
Effects of Facing History and Ourselves on Teachers
and Students: Findings from the National Professional Development
and Evaluation Project
The Facing History and Ourselves National Professional Development and Evaluation Project was funded by the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation.
Authors:
1. Beth Boulay
Abt Associates Inc.
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge MA 02138
Phone: 617.520.2903
2. Rachel McCormick
Abt Associates Inc.
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge MA 02138
Phone: 617.520.2668
3. Beth Gamse
Abt Associates Inc.
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge MA 02138
Phone: 617.349.2808
4. Dennis Barr
Facing History and Ourselves
16 Hurd Road
Brookline, MA 02445
Phone: 617.232.1595
5. Robert Selman
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Larsen 609
Appian Way
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617.495.3038
6. Ethan Lowenstein
Eastern Michigan University
College of Education
John W. Porter Building
Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197
Phone: 734.487.1414
7. Melinda Fine
New York University
Research Center for Leadership and Action
Wagner School of Public Service
110 Bleecker Street, 6D
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212.253.9271
Effects of Facing History and Ourselves on Teachers
and Students: Findings from the National Professional Development
and Evaluation Project
Facing History and Ourselves (Facing History) has been working in secondary schools and classrooms in North America and Europe for over three decades, providing a model of educational intervention and professional development that aims to help teachers and their students make the essential connections between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. Through in-depth study of cases of mass atrocity and genocide, Facing History engages teachers and students in critical review of the steps that led to full scale violence and destruction, and exploration of strategies to prevent such destruction, and encourage positive civic participation. Facing History hypothesizes that when teachers improve their sense of efficacy about teaching history and promoting student learning, their teaching can then change their students’ civic awareness, participation and dispositions, social and moral development, and ultimately, students’ capacity to connect history and the moral choices students themselves confront.
The intellectual and pedagogic framework of Facing History is built upon a synthesis of history and ethics for effective history education.[1] In its classrooms, a carefully structured methodology is utilized to provoke thinking about complex questions of citizenship and human behavior. The phenomena Facing History asks students to contemplate represent issues and dilemmas within real historical events. The focal case study is an in-depth study of the failure of democracy in Germany and the events leading to the Holocaust. Its core resource text, Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, uses a wide range of primary source documents organized in a clear sequence of study. It begins with identity—first individual identity and then group and national identities with their definitions of membership (Strom, 2004). It continues by examining the failure of democracy in Germany and the steps leading to the Holocaust—the most documented case of twentieth-century indifference, de-humanization, hatred, racism, antisemitism, and mass murder. The text then explores difficult questions of judgment, memory, and legacy, and the necessity for responsible civic participation to prevent injustice and protect democracy in the present and future. The materials use language and vocabulary throughout that are tools for entry into the history – words like perpetrator, victim, defender, bystander, opportunist, rescuer, and upstander. Students learn that terms like identity, membership, legacy, denial, responsibility, and judgment can help them understand complicated history, as well as connect the lessons of that history to the questions they face in their own worlds.
This article describes the first two years of research from the Facing History’s largest research undertaking to date, the National Professional Development and Evaluation Project (NPDEP). The study’s final year of research, which is not included in this article, has been summarized by Facing History on its website (http://www.facinghistory.org/eval/npdep); this final year of research will be submitted by the evaluation team for publication in 2011. Finally, it is important to note that the NPDEP research project was funded by the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation.
Prior Research on the Efficacy of Facing History
From its inception, Facing History and Ourselves has examined programmatic outcomes for teachers, students, classroom learning environments and schools (Barr and Facing History and Ourselves, 2010). In addition, external researchers interested in teacher and student development have conducted studies with Facing History participants. Researchers have examined, for example, how students develop their capacities to connect history to their current social, moral, and civic concerns and commitments (Lieberman, 1981 and 1991; Bardige, 1983; Brabeck et al., 1994; Fine, 1995; Barr et al., 1998; Schultz, Barr, & Selman, 2001; Lowenstein, 2003).[2] The most rigorous of the earlier evaluations was a quasi-experimental study in which students taught by Facing History teachers were compared with students taught by comparison teachers from the same community who prioritized issues of race and prejudice in their teaching, in an effort to identify comparison teachers as comparable as possible to the self-selected program participants. The findings indicated positive effects of Facing History on eighth grade students’ perspective taking and relationship maturity, and lower self-reported racist attitudes and fighting behavior. (Schultz, Barr, & Selman, 2001). Results from multiple studies about Facing History have also suggested a variety of potential positive effects, although these studies were less rigorous. The results from earlier internal as well as independent evaluations have provided a strong knowledge base from which hypotheses were generated for the current study. [3]
Facing History’s Theory of Change and Program Activities
Facing History and Ourselves encompasses an ever-widening range of curricula and professional development experiences. Its core resource is the Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior resource book. The program activities include well-articulated professional development seminars, follow-up activities, and accompanying resources and materials.
Facing History provides teachers with training in both historical content and instructional practices designed to engage students’ hearts and minds. The Facing History and Ourselves resources provide material for in-depth discussions about salient historical events that reflect hatred, mass violence, and the choices that led to those events. Students examine not only the triumphs of history, but also its failures, tragedies and humiliations. Facing History and Ourselves holds a core assumption: students must be trusted to examine history in all of its complexities, including its legacies of prejudice and discrimination, resilience and courage. Such trust encourages young people to develop a voice in the conversations of their peer culture, as well as in the critical discussions and debates of their community and nation.
Facing History articulated a theory of change to depict the hypothesized means by which teachers and students experience the impacts of the Facing History program (Exhibit 1). The ovals on the left show components of a teacher’s Facing History experience considered necessary for a teacher to be able to implement the core case study, Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior unit, in his or her classroom: a professional development seminar, follow-up support from program staff, and timely, relevant and accessible print and online resources. Participation in conferences and community events are often helpful, yet not always necessary, program components; their influence on teachers is therefore indicated using a dashed line. Teachers then implement the program in their classrooms, thereby influencing students. The 6-week unit, shown in an oval, represents the essential connection between teachers and students. Furthermore, Facing History hypothesized that this 6-week unit was the minimum unit length to achieve the desired teacher and student outcomes. Facing History further hypothesized that outcomes for students require adherence to the program’s Scope and Sequence[4] and use of the Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior resource book. These two elements of the unit are shown in boxes below the unit as they are necessary components of the broader unit. Guest speakers, other resource books, and Videos/DVDs are helpful, yet not always necessary, components. The components of the Facing History approach are described in more detail below.
Components of the Facing History Program
The Facing History approach is neither a stand-alone curriculum nor a stand-alone set of instructions; rather it is a mature and well-articulated program both with respect to pedagogy and instructional resources. The Facing History program provides professional development and intensive, individualized follow-up services to teachers, who then teach students. The professional development introduces teachers to a Scope and Sequence, using materials and pedagogical strategies that teachers in turn are to use in their own classrooms. Facing History provides professional development through face-to-face and online seminars, workshops, follow-up coaching and technical assistance. The program offers books, study guides, curriculum outlines, lesson plans, videos, and other resources to support teachers’ implementation and continuing development of pedagogical content knowledge and skills.
Professional Development Seminars. Facing History seminars are typically five days long, and use the same Scope and Sequence of topics and pedagogy for teachers that they will in turn use with their students. Participants become familiar with the content, themes, practices and key resources of the program and explore ways to apply them in their own classrooms. During the seminar, program staff familiarizes participants with resources that can be accessed the following school year (such as online resources), and they make appointments for follow-up meetings with each teacher early in the year.
Follow-up services. For the purposes of this study, participating teachers agreed to teach Facing History for a minimum of six weeks, or its equivalent, during the school year. Follow-up services are designed to help educators implement Facing History and Ourselves content and methodology; the type and amount of follow-up services are tailored to each teacher’s needs. Program staff provide teachers with a curriculum outline of a model six-week unit, and then individualize support to each teacher by assisting with lesson planning, selecting additional resources for teachers’ particular units, and responding to any questions about the content, pedagogy and assessment. Early in the school year, Facing History staff meet with all participating teachers individually and/or in groups to help them plan and to address any particular challenges that may arise in implementing the program in their setting. Facing History staff members formulate an individualized plan for supporting each teacher during the rest of the school year.
Print and Online Resources. Teachers have access to materials made available to seminar participants after the completion of their summer seminar:
• Educator resources online (http://www.facinghistory.org/resources): a teacher-focused online space featuring curricula, multimedia resources, readings, lesson plans, and forums;
• An extensive database of classroom speakers: including witnesses to history, scholars, activists, and artists;
• National and local resource centers: lending libraries of relevant books (including class sets of novels), articles, and audio-visual materials; and
• Advanced seminars and workshops: offered throughout the year and during the summer, to provide new tools, resources, and perspectives for their classrooms.
Holocaust and Human Behavior Resource Book. The Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior resource book, which was provided for Facing History students in NPDEP classrooms, reflects an interdisciplinary approach to citizenship education. The readings move from thought to judgment to participation, and the readings and associated learning activities address the moral questions inherent in a study of violence, racism, anti-Semitism and bigotry. The readings and activities explore the consequences of discrimination, racism, and antisemitism by holding up "the tarnished mirror of history" to one of the most violent times in world history -- the 1930s and 1940s. As students read and reflect, they are asked to investigate the forces that undermined democracy in Germany, betrayed a generation of young people, and ultimately led to the Holocaust. In doing so, the materials are designed to promote students’ awareness that potentially similar forces threaten our own society today, and that their decisions can make a positive difference in their community, nation and the world. (Strom, Sleeper, and Johnson, 1992).
Method
This study is designed to answer the following research questions:
1) What is the impact of participation in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior professional development and follow-up services on teachers’ sense of self-efficacy and perceptions of support, engagement and satisfaction compared to a group of control teachers who did not participate in the professional development?
2) What is the impact of exposure to a Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior unit on 9th and 10th grade students’ a) historical understanding, b) civic learning, and c) social engagement and interpersonal relationships compared to a group of control students who did not participate in the program?
The study employed a group randomized design to estimate these impacts. Schools that had no and/or limited exposure to Facing History and Ourselves were recruited to participate in the study during the 2006-07 school year and randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a Facing History group in which teachers receive professional development and follow-up services or an “as is” control condition. Teachers in the Facing History schools committed to teaching a Holocaust and Human Behavior unit of a minimum of six weeks, or the equivalent, during the 2007-08 school year. Teachers in the Facing History group attended a Holocaust and Human Behavior Seminar during the summer or fall of 2007 and, over the course of the school year, Facing History staff provided follow-up support as teachers developed their lesson plans and implemented their unit. Follow-up services were delivered through both face-to-face meetings with Facing History program staff and on-line support (email communication and resources provided on Facing History’s website).
The Study Sample
The study team defined the population of interest for the NDPEP at the school level, as a set of schools in close enough proximity to a Facing History and Ourselves regional office to facilitate training and ongoing teacher support. Facing History provides professional development and follow-up services using eight regional offices: Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville/Memphis, New England, New York/New Jersey, and San Francisco. Schools were recruited from the population of schools that met the eligibility criteria articulated below, and were located within one hour’s driving distance of a regional office, to facilitate follow-up services and data collection activities.