Historical "Truth" - AoK History
Today's lesson explores the issues surrounding the reliability and validity of knowledge in AoK History. The lesson allows students to draw upon a wide range of ToK Concepts, and is purposefully open ended. The lesson allows students to explore the idea of a "historical Truth" (and hopefully to problematise such a term). As such it should be equally accessible for students who don't study History as it is for those who do. A
Students can draw upon the range of ToK concepts, maybe with particular reference to Objectivity, Perspective, Interpretation, Evidence and..., TRUTH
The lesson.
President George W. Bush at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota County, Florida, September 11th 2001 as he was informed of the 9-11 attacks on The World Trade Centre.
What's wrong with this photo?
A few interesting sources:
Student collaborative thinking:
Working in Groups brainstorm some answers to the following questions. Add your answers to the Presentation for feedback to the whole group:
Can you establish the Historical Truth of this photo ? (All groups)
If a range of sources disagree how do we establish objective facts ? (Grp 1)
What counts as a fact in history? (grp 2)
Is a history which is internally consistent necessarily true ? (grp 2)
Could more than one version of the past, even contradictory ones, be internally consistent ? (Grp 3)
Is a fact always the truth ? (& vice versa: is the truth always factually accurate ?) (Grp 4)
Is it important to establish historical objectivity, and if so why ? (Grp 5)
Is it unfair to judge people and actions in the past by the standards of today? (grp 6)
Should terms such as “atrocity” or “hero” be used when writing about history, or should value judgments be avoided? (Grp 7)
Other TokToday content that ToK Teachers may find useful:
A whole unit of Natural Science Lessons (Free).
AoK Human Science Lesson on Cargo Cults of Melanesia (also use for Indigenous Knowledge) Free.