Daleah Goodwin
dgoodwin@uga.edu
Ph.D. Student
Department of History
The University of Georgia
History is a clock that tells a people their political and cultural time of day.
It is a compass that people use to locate themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people who they are and what they are. Where they have been and what they have been. Most importantly, history tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be.
~John Henrik Clarke~
It is my sincere belief that conveying historic knowledge will increase public comprehension and appreciation for the legacy of triumphs and contributions of all people. While observing nearly two decades of sporadic, partial and distorted accounts of African American history, I learned that history contains power. It has the power to elevate or suppress, to reveal or hide, and to remember or forget. History shifts from being merely an event that occurred in the past, but to the record, that guides the future. As I learned more about history, I began my life’s journey towards helping foster positive self-images among African Americans and assisting the disenfranchised. I decided that the most effective way to report accurate information and celebrate multiple individual experiences was to become an historical educator.
One of the most common complaints from history students is that “history is boring.” Bringing “life” to history requires extreme ingenuity. I found that having students locate “the past” in current events, movies, television programs and music helps to make history “less boring” and more importantly, it prompts them to evaluate historic accuracy or inaccuracy in mainstream interpretations of history. In several cases, my students expressed delight in being able to watch the Disney film Pocahontas, for example, as a research project and sifting through the torrid Hollywood love affair of a young Native American woman and an English colonist. Perhaps even more though, they enjoyed itemizing the historic inaccuracies and fabrications with Pocahontas’ leather two-piece outfit. History in popular culture serves as the launch pad for critical inquiry into primary sources, pictures, and books.
I consider students ability to master facts, concepts and generalizations about history integral to understanding lived experiences. However, rote memorization alone strips students of the ability to analyze and think critically. I encourage my students to consider the social, political, and economic context in which these events occurred. This not only allows students to think in terms of multiple causes, but it also challenges many of the “traditional histories” which fail to integrate factors such as race, gender, sexuality, class, religion or age into historic narratives.
I also advocate the development of critical and analytical feeling skills. While teaching history and issues in Women’s Studies, it is not uncommon for students to have an emotional attachment to specific events or occurrences. I believe that emotional responses should not go overlooked, but by asking probing questions such as “why does this make you upset?” or “why does that empower you?” transform the emotional response into part of the intellectual and learning experience.
bell hooks in Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope stated “[E]ducators who have dared to study and learn new ways of thinking and teaching so that the work we do does not reinforce systems of domination, of imperialism, racism, class elitism have created a pedagogy of hope (xiv).” That is my goal. I want my students to see the power contained in the written, pictorial, and spoken word. I hope my students allow themselves to be transformed by a knowledge of who lived in the past, how they lived, what their struggles were, how they overcame, and their contributions to humanity. I want them to see how freedom, justice and liberty—major themes in history—affect everyone’s lives, inform the present and shape the future. I want my students to take pride in their role as a contemporary historic actor or actress.