SYNTHESIZING ESSAY

Reflecting on Secondary Source Analysis

Question Everything

While secondary sources often appear to be straightforward information, this assumption inhibits students’ ability to develop a critical consumption mindset.  Students and adults need to consider the source of the information that they consume on a daily basis, not just evaluating whether or not it seems feasible, but the motivation and audience that the author is considering.  This skill is critical not only in the social studies classroom, but in the larger context as well: “Dealing with complex information in complicated ways, as historiography demands, is a skill-set useful for many jobs, not just those associated with academic history.”[1] I can help students to develop these approaches so that when they become fully contributing members of society, professionals and voters, they have the skills to know when and how to question the information presented to them. Secondary source suspicion does not mean that the authors are intentionally duplicitous; it instead acknowledges cultural biases, marketing practices, and inherent subjectivity in what evidence authors choose to include in their arguments.  I hope that I can help to make, “how do you know?” a reflexive phrase that guides their discernment of primary sources. This development helps students learn not only to question everything, but to understand how they and others have arrived at their conclusions.

​

I have personally strengthened my own ability to think critically about sources and examine their historiography through my classwork in the graduate history certificate program.  In HIST 694: Selected Topics: Maya, Aztecs, and Incas, our initial articles helped build awareness of the tendency to apply a western lens to ethnohistory, inappropriately applying importance to items due to cultural biases.  As historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and geographers examine primary sources, their professional lens also colors their interpretation. Rather than frustrating, this offers the opportunity to examine history via multiple academic disciplines, as “there exists an array of interpretive approaches that provide a more comprehensive understanding of the past.”[2]  It is important not only to question, but to seek answers from a variety of scholarly arenas.

​

In the social studies classroom, secondary source analysis helps students draw more nuanced conclusions regarding what they read and its sources, because “Comparing, contrasting and comprehending historical works is more than just discussing past events. They have to critically reflect on those works while understanding and then communicating their value and limitations.”[3]  I utilize the Origin, Purpose, Value, and Limitation strategy of analyzing sources because of my experience with International Baccalaureate courses.  IB History examinations specially assess students’ ability to develop an argument using this method, and I have found that students benefit from a specific set of questions that scaffold their understanding of the documents in a similar way to Matt Doran’s advocacy of Lowen’s ten sourcing questions.[4] Students work through this method with world history film analysis, readings of disparate sources - a Star Tribune editorial on renaming Columbus Day “Indigenous People’s Day” and a Bucks County Courier editorial about Philadelphia’s Columbus Day parade -  on how to best remember Christopher Columbus, fiction readings from Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, non-fiction academic texts such as “The Iron Dice” chapter of Why Nations Go to War, and popular readings like A History of the World in 6 Glasses and Lies My Teacher Told Me. In the past, I have used these resources to foster class discussions; however, in the future we will begin by examining the sources for their origins, purposes, values, and limitations to model best practices before students commence reading. These exercises will foster the recognition that all kinds of sources warrant scrutiny, regardless of the credentials of the individual(s) who created them.

[1] "What Is Historiography?" Clio's Current, October 3, 2013. Accessed February 12, 2019. http://clioscurrent.com/blog/2013/10/3/what-is-historiography.

[2] A. Bernard Knapp. “Archaeology without Gravity: Postmodernism and the Past.” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Jun., 1996), p. 152

[3] “What Is Historiography?”

[4] Matt Doran. "Historiography for the Secondary Social Studies Classroom." Social Studies for the 21st Century. October 18, 2014. Accessed February 10, 2019. http://www.21socialstudies.com/blog/historiography.