‘You could see it in your mind’

Which is more effective, first or third person interpretation, for engaging young people in the past?

Ceri JonesResearch Associate, RCMG, University of Leicester

Engaging young people in history

•Can living history make history more accessible, relevant and engaging for young people (aged 11-18)?

•What impact can living history have on young peoples’ historical understanding?

School Type Location Age (years) Gender

Number of

studentsSite

visited

School 1 Private Outside London 16-17 Female

20 observed, 4 interviewed

Museum of

London

School 2Voluntary aided, selective

London 11-12 Female2 classes

observed, 7 interviewed, 10 concept

maps

Museum of

London

School 3 Grammar East of England 11-12 Male

2 classes observed, 6 interviewed

Tower of London

School 4 Private London 9-10 Mixed2 classes

observed, 4 interviewed

Tower of London

School 5Voluntary

aided, comprehens

ive

Outside London 11-14 Male

40 observed (school

declined to participate)

Tower of London

School 6 Private Channel Islands 15 Female

10 observed, 3 interviewed

Tower of London

Immersion•Cognitive,

emotional, imaginative engagement

•Experiencing the past = beneficial

The challenge

•Self conscious•Importance of peer approval•For young children

Mimetic realism […] destroys history. To teach the

public that the work […] is to reconstruct the past as

it really was erases all the interpretive work that goes

into the museum’s story […] Mimetic realism thus

deadens the historical sensibility of the public. It

teaches people not to question historians’ stories, not

to imagine other, alternative histories, but to accept

an embodied tableau as the really real.Handler, R. and Gable, E. (1997) The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial

Williamsburg, Duke University Press, Durham and London, p224

•Aesthetic distance - willing suspension of disbelief but audience is aware it is a performance

30 minute performance

Modern museum gallery

As audience enter, Harry, dressed in period costume in a slightly dishevelled state, has his back to them.

The Museum of London

Survivor of the Black Death

“Real-life” character from The Canterbury Tales

angry at Chaucer’s depiction

Self guided gallery tour

Object handling workshop

From Norman stronghold...

... to Medieval Palace

Directed questions, critical understanding

Self-guided tour

Four students from School 1 discuss how the session at the Museum of

London made the medieval past come to life

Emily: Yeah, to say why something like … because he was being the …

Abby: Innkeeper

Emily: … the Host and he was like ‘my wife keeps me tied down’ you know,

you want to know those kind of things about history

Researcher: So you’re more interested in the kind of social-

Student: Anthropology, the social side of history, that’s a good word

Researcher: Okay so, it made it, would you say it made it more relevant,

history? More sort of-

Abby: It made it more approachable, the tale, like you could see it kind of

like in your mind.

I think [Chaucer] was in the history book when we went there but now [...] he’s walking and talking.

Emily, School 1

You always think of them as so different, I don’t really know why?

[That is what medieval people] were supposed to be like [...] That’s just normal for the period

EmilySchool 1

Abby, School 1

Jacob: […] when we went in one of the rooms she just dragged on a bit -

Pupil: Yeah she did go on!

Jacob: - […] all the decorations, we don’t need to know about that

Pupil: We do!

Peter: We just need to know about the history not the decorations.

Researcher: So you didn’t see the decorations as part of the history then?

Pupil: Kind of yes.

Researcher: Kind of.

Pupil: Because it was what it would have looked like.

Alex: Or it might have been.

Researcher: That’s not the history that you’re interested in?

Pupil: No we like battles and like proper history.

Six students from School 3 discuss their opinions of the living history

performance at the Tower of London

Proper Medieval history!

Conclusions

•To immerse or not to immerse?•Balance of aesthetics and

historical content•Independent learning•Enquiry-based approach