Trajectory of Curiosity towards Historical Figures in Primary and Secondary Schools and a Study on Historical Curiosity

Abstract

When the studies on literature are reviewed, it appears that there are basically two types of curiosity; perceptual curiosity and epistemic curiosity. While perceptual curiosity is generally activated by extraordinary situations, events, factors or developments affecting sense organs such as hearing, seeing, tasting and feeling the heat, epistemic curiosity emerges in various degrees depending on individual and new information obtained by or delivered to that individual. The fact that epistemic curiosity emerges mainly from information brings the following question into the mind: If the curiosity emerges from information, then, can we speak of different curiosity types specific to different types of information or discipline? For example, can there be a different type of curiosity specific to the discipline of history? The present study stemming from this hypothesis aims at reaching a meaningful pattern through analysing the reasons or motives of curiosities of participants towards historical figures, events, times and places. To this end, grounded theory process was chosen out of qualitative research methods. In this study, it is focused on the curiosities of primary and secondary school students towards historical figures as a part of afore-mentioned grounded theory process. As it is intended to generate a theory regarding historical curiosity, grounded theory method was preferred. In this study that can be seen as the fourth phase of “theory generating process”, the processes of “collecting data”, “analysing the collected data”and “generating a new theory” are carried on simultaneously. The sample group consists of 606 primary and secondary school students. The data collected by means of this study that was conducted by “face-to-face interview method” is analysed through continuous comparative analysis method and the study is supported with theoretical notes. The figures most wondered by the students appear to be the historical ones and those serving in the army, with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Fâtih Sultan Mehmet occupying the first places. Besides, according to the findings of the study, the reasons of curiosities can be summarized as follows: “Historical importance, extraordinariness, personal qualifications, truth, empathy, sympathy, influence of media, insufficient information, environmental effect and antipathy”. Based on these findings, it was reached to the following classification in connection with historical curiosity: “Important curiosity, extraordinary curiosity, experimental curiosity, emotional curiosity, dilemmatic curiosity and environmental curiosity”. It is expected that this classification that appeared as one of the most important findings of the present study will contribute to history-teaching, mainly in the fields of writing textbooks and “teaching-approaches” of the teachers.