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Over the past two decades significant attention has been given to the topic of historical empathy, yet the manner in which historical empathy is currently defined, operationalized, and put into classroom practice lacks consistency and often is based on dated conceptualizations of the construct. Scholars have employed a variety of theoretical and practical approaches to utilizing historical empathy with students, leading to persistent confusion about the nature, purpose and fostering of historical empathy. Our goal is to present an updated conceptualization that clearly defines historical empathy as a dual-dimensional, cognitive-affective construct and differentiates historical empathy from exclusively cognitive or affective modes of historical inquiry. We further provide an updated instructional model for the promotion of historical empathy that includes consideration for historical empathy’s proximate and ultimate goals. We aim to highlight where research has produced some consensus on best practice for promoting empathy and where further study is needed.

Social studies interactive notebooks are a unique but simple tool for organizing everyday activities in a creative, colorful, and meaningful way. Interactive notebooks help to meet the needs of middle school students by providing opportunities for teacher directed input and student-centered output that covers curricular content while taking advantage of the variety of ways that students learn. The purpose of this article is to briefly describe the notebooks as an instructional tool, discuss the variety of ways that interactive notebooks can be assessed, and illustrate the benefits middle school students and teachers can reap from their use in the social studies classroom.

Mobile devices are increasingly prevalent and may have large ramifications for social studies education, but there has been limited research as to their effectiveness. This study utilized an Apple iPad to explore how a specific application (Explore 9/11) impacted secondary student interactions with primary source narratives and their influence on historical empathy during a War on Terrorism unit in a United States history course. Three sections utilized the iPad, while two used resources found on the iPad, but not the iPad itself. The study found that students using mobile devices had positive experiences in interacting with primary source documents. Students, further, were able to develop a sense of historical empathy as they came across the firsthand accounts of seven individuals’ experiences on September 11, 2001 regardless of whether or not they used the iPads. These findings, as well as their implications for social studies education are discussed.

The use of six non-fiction graphic novels to teach historical agency in a social studies methods course was examined in a critical action research study. Pre-service social studies teachers were asked to read one graphic novel and to discuss it with classmates, first in literature circles, then as a whole class. Data revealed graphic novels engaged pre-service teachers in thinking about historical agency, and helped them make connections between historical agency and their own agency. There were three overlapping ways pre-service teachers connected to historical agency in all six graphic novels: upbringing and personal experience, unpredictability of historical situations, and injustice. The findings highlight the value of graphic novels for teaching about historical agency in social studies courses because of their focus on historical agents’ positionality.

The purpose of this notable trade book lesson plan is to utilize the novel, Ghost Boys, in an upper elementary/middle school education application. This lesson plan utilizes visual curriculum materials to engage students in a powerful exploration of “bearing witness.” Through the exploration of text, photographs, music and dance, students will be given opportunities to engage with the visual materials, think critically about relevant societal issues and participate in affective learning. The students will interpret visual historical evidence to develop “a sense of otherness” or empathy, and engage with the inquiry process (Barton and Levstik, 2004, pp. 210–211). Historical empathy proves an important aspect to students' historical thinking because affective learning allows students to connect with historical figures and gain new perspectives understanding difficult situations (Endacott, 2010, p. 6).

The approach of this notable trade book lesson plan is a multimodal analysis of art forms (photography, music and dance choreography) which culminates in the students taking informed action to create a personal mural to “bear witness” to an issue of their selection.

This is a National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) notable trade book lesson plan. After engaging with this lesson, students will gain skills in visual decoding, empathy, critical thinking and collaboration. The students will use higher-order thinking to take informed action by creating a mural to “bear witness” to injustice.

The value of this lesson plan is the ability to integrate written themes from the text, visual learning and hands-on learning in a meaningful and authentic way to students. Allowing the students to take informed action using the knowledge gained about “bearing witness” proves crucial for young students learning how to actively participate in America's multi-cultural democracy.

Most of the managers I meet (and I reckon to have met a few thousand over the last ten years) are dissatisfied with their lot. Many have an ambition to “retire at forty‐five” (or thirty‐five, depending on their age); a perceptible minority “drop out”, watched more or less wistfully by many of their colleagues; most of all, they tell you they want to do their own thing, to work for themselves.

This paper aims to uncover the trajectory of the anti-corruption effort of the Hong Kong colonial Government by identifying its general approach of denial in the pre-War years. It highlights the path-dependence nature, as well as the path-creation logic of the policy process of anti-corruption reform and the anxiety of the colonial administration in maintaining trust of the local population in the post-War years. These insights should enhance the general understanding of the nature of colonial governance.

This paper is primarily based on archival materials available at the British National Archives and Hong Kong Public Records Office.

The paper intends to go before the “Great Man narrative” in explaining the success of the anti-corruption effort in colonial Hong Kong. Whilst the colonial government was fully aware of the endemic of corruption and the substantial involvement of European officers, she was still cocooned with the misguided belief that the core of the administration was mostly “incorruptible”. The Air Raid Precaution Department scandal in 1941 was, however, a powerful wake-up that rendered the denial and self-illusion no longer defensible. The policy ideas of the 1940s did shape the Prevention of Corruption Ordinance 1948 and other related reforms, yet they were not immediately translated into fundamental changes in the institutional set-up of the anti-graft campaign. The limitations of these half-hearted measures were fully exposed in the coming decades. The cumulative effects of the piecemeal anti-graft efforts of the colonial government over the first century of rule, however, did path the way for the “revolutionary” changes in the 1970s under Murray MacLehose.

This is a highly original piece based on under-explored archival materials. The findings should have a major contribution to the scholarship on the nature of colonial governance and the history of anti-corruption efforts of Hong Kong.