Overview of methods for historical empathy

Historical empathy is a complex concept to teach, as it requires a depth of historical knowledge and an ability to understand past actors within the conditions of their own time.Students who experience history as abstract or unengaging often struggle to grasp that people in the past thought and acted differently from us due to cultural,political and social circumstances.The aim of this overview is to analyze research on pedagogcial methods designed to support the development of historical empathy in school students.The material used in this Overview was identified through the databases Swepub and ERIC via EBSCO.Each Study was evaluated based on its relevance to the research question concerning methods for historical empathy.The results indicate that several pedagogical approaches have the possibility to make history more tangible,engaging and emotionally meaningful for students.These methods include virtual reality,augmented reality,museums,theatre,discussions and the use of primary sources.Findings from the reviewed studies suggest that such methods can challenge preconceptions of history among students and contribute to a deeper understanding of historical experiences.The overview shows that multimodal resources such as audio,video and authentic material enable students to encounter history in a more human and emotional dimension.The Studies all empathize that these methods should not work as a replacement of traditional methods but rather as a complement and that structured reflection is necessary for it to be pedagogically effective.