Storytelling in Archaeology and the Quest for a Pedagogy of Renewal
Open accessAbstract
Archaeologists are often a delightful presence in public education settings especially when they have objects for their audience to see, touch, admire, and talk about.This show-and-tell mode of public engagement is multi-sensorial.For this reason, the intrinsic value of archaeology for historical education has been widely discussed at theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical levels (e.g., Stone & MacKenzie, 1990; Trškan & Bezjak, 2020).These studies underscore the benefits of using physical remains to teach history, especially in terms of "developing student's historical thinking competencies" and their understanding of "historical concepts of time, evidence, significance, agency, accounts, empathy, continuity, and change" (Rushohora, 2020, p. 300).This special issue, Archaeology for Education, covers these and other topics.The following articles remind me of my work as a staff archaeologist at the Museum of African American History in Boston (MA, USA) between 1995 and 1999.The museum is in the old Abiel Smith School building, erected in 1835 to educate Black children in racially segregated Boston.Next door is the African Meeting House, a community center for Boston's Black residents, which also served as the African Baptist Church of Boston.Built in 1806, it is now the oldest Black church building in the United States and a National Historical Landmark.
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Cites
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Cited by
Still being checked.
- Authors
- Ogundiran, A.
- ORCID
- Ogundiran, Akin
- Venue
- African Archaeological Review
- Published
- 2023-08-29
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 447-453
- ISSN
- 0263-0338 (ISSN-L)
- 1572-9842
- OpenAlex
- W4386253905
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- African Archaeological Review (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Museology › Museums and Cultural Heritage
- Keywords
- storytelling, archaeology education, citizen participation, museum education, history education, show and tell, historical thinking, African American history, multisensory learning
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