“이 사람들은 스포츠맨 정신이 없었어요”: 학생들의 사회문화적 정체성과 세계사 이해

Employing a sociocultural perspective as conceptual framework, this study investigated how U.S. students understand a variety of topics from world history, and how their sociocultural identity influenced their understandings. Two world history classrooms in a Catholic school were selected on a convenience basis. I observed these two classrooms for 10 months and conducted task-based, pair interviews with 66 students in the two classes. Findings indicated that students’ sense of identity, which was constructed based on their sociocultural backgrounds, influenced the extent to which they felt connected to various world history topics. Their analyses of and moral responses to world history topics were grounded in their identity and values as Christian U.S. citizens and finally drove the specific narratives they constructed. From these findings, I argue that in learning world history, students are mainly concerned with confirming their own sociocultural identity, rather than expanding their perspectives, which is contradictory to the main purpose of world history curriculum.