INTERPRETATIONS

WHAT?WHY?

PROBLEMSSOLUTIONS

What do we mean by ‘interpretations’?

• CONSTRUCTED representation of the past

‘An interpretation of history is simply someone’s version of history’. Ian Dawson

Constructed AFTER the events

Types of Interpretation

DISTORTIONS

PROPAGANDA: STALIN / HITLER

Types of Interpretation

GENUINE DISTORTIONS

THE BIG CHALLENGE

PROPAGANDA: STALIN / HITLER

ENTERTAINMENT

E. G Films

What do students need to understand:

• That different interpretations exist

• That different interpretations can be equally valid

• That deliberate distortion of the past is not a genuine interpretation

• Why different interpretations exist

• How to evaluate validity

Why do students have difficulty understanding INTERPRETATIONS?

• Life experience = truth or lie• Reinforced through educational experience of

right or wrong answers• Compounded by GCSE questioning..

– (c) ‘Haig was an uncaring General who sacrified his men for no reason.’

Do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [10]

• …Which can lead to 2 dimensional teaching at KS3

A far cry from Historical understanding:

1. Most of the past is unknowable

2. The past has no absolute reality

3. History is present oriented

4. Historians give the past meaning

Keith Jenkins/David Lowenthal

How can we help students understand interpretations?

• Start early

• Revisit skill/concept often

• Appropriate and consistent vocabulary

• Spend time – move beyond developing historical knowledge base to construction of past

How can we help students understand interpretations?

• To understand an interpretation students have to engage with the process of interpretation

i.e to know what it is, they have to do it

Interpretation is done by those who “translate,” and “decode,”. Grinder and McCoy

Interpretation is a planned effort to create an understanding of the history and significance of events, people, and objects. Anderson and Low

How can we help students understand interpretations?

• Sources • Positionality

“Historians give the past meaning – and the meaning depends on the historian”

1. SOURCES

“Most of the past is unknowable”

Upper 3 – What we learned about History this lesson…

Being a historian is a bit like being a detective – Daria

Historians know what happened in the past by bringing evidence together – Sophie

Historians can never be 100% sure about what happened in the past, we can only use the evidence to give opinions – April

There’s no right or wrong answer so long as you have linked it to the clues you have – Chloe

Use every bit of evidence, even a tiny piece can help a lot – Georgia

You should use the most likely explanation, based on what you already know about history – Katie

Extending the idea - positionality• Suggest both images

are on a book cover, but one is large and the other tucked in the corner.

• Which would ‘X’ (Jeremy Clarkson, teacher with known views, Pink) choose to be the large picture and why

• Give the book a title that reflects the interpretation

“Historians give the past meaning”

“The Jews are our misfortune”

Published in Der Sturmer, 1932. Der Sturmer was a Nazi paper

“The Jew is the parasite among

humans”.

Part of a Nazi speech from 1944

Nazi election poster from 1933

2. Sources to challenge interpretations

Temporary money, 'Notgeld' issued in May, 1921 from Beverungen, with one year validity. Such money was issued as a temporary measure during the great German post-World War I inflation. The reverse side of this one mark note has an anti-Semitic image of a Jew hawking his wares despite obvious poverty of German citizens.

19th century BRITISH image of a Jewish tailor

Further discussion

• How far do these additional sources challenge our interpretation of Nazi anti-semitism?

• Why do you think that anti-semitism is often presented as just a Nazi problem?

“History is present oriented”

3. USING DIFFERENT SETS OF SOURCES

• Split class into groups and give them different material to generate interpretations– Tsar Nicholas

Extension: POSITIONALITY

Give all class all materialThen give them an interpretation role card and ask

them to select 5 sources to present as an exhibition, and write additional text to make their interpretation persuasive

“The past has no absolute reality”

Positionality• 4. Simple questioning

– Battle of “Hastings” (reinforcement)

• 5. Changing the angle of approach– Haig(CARD SORT SCAFFOLD)

“Historians is present oriented’

In 1914 everyone expected the war to be over by Christmas. But the war turned into stalemate and lasted 4 years. When the war wasn’t over quickly people became nervous and looked for reasons why things had gone so wrong.

Soldiers in WWI were recruited into PALs battalions, so they could fight with their family or friends. When there was a big attack like the Somme whole communities of men were wiped out. This had a huge psychological effect on the people of England and they looked for someone to blame.

British soldiers in WWI were ordinary men who didn’t know how to fight. Haig and his Generals ordered these men to walk slowly towards the Germans. German machine guns found these walking men an easy target for their machine guns and casualties were high. The Generals did this to prevent panic during an attack

New technology was invented during WWI, such as the tank. For a while, this exciting new technology had very little effect on the war. Because it was new, it took time to learn how to use it effectively.

WW2 started in 1939. This war also lasted a long time (6 years). So people realized that the nature of warfare had changed

At the time, no-one understood what a ‘new’ type of war was being fought. In the 19th century (when the WWI Generals were trained) wars were usually quick attacking battles. With hindsight, we can see that the Generals were unprepared for a war of attrition.

There are very few people left now who fought in WWI so our collective memory isn’t so scarred.

Positionality• 6. Exercises which map changes in

interpretations –and reasons for same - over time– Cromwell – Hitler

“Historians is present oriented’

Credit to Ian Dawson

7. Evaluating interpretations

• Again trying to move beyond two dimensional “which do you trust most?”

• Obvious distortions should be easily criticised

• Framework to manage ambiguity

Interpretation 1

Score /10

Interpretation 2

Score /10

Interpretation 3

Score /10

Who created this interpretation and what point of view will they probably or possibly have?

Why was this interpretation created? What was the probable or possible purpose of the author?

Differentiating with age of student / ability of student / nature of Interpretation What type of source is this? E.g Film, Diary, SpeechAre there any particular problems with this type of interpretation?

When was this interpretation produced and what difference does that make?