“History is like an old story!”: Navigating the trajectories of historical epistemic beliefs through epistemic network analysis in Taiwanese high school students' perspectives

Epistemic beliefs are crucial in the modern digital world, where individuals must navigate a vast array of information. These beliefs, connected to higher-order thinking skills like critical thinking and problem-solving, enable individuals to evaluate the credibility of information, discern biases, and make informed decisions. Developing sophisticated epistemic beliefs is essential for engaging with the digital world and contributing meaningfully to various domains. For history education, as the goal has put more emphasis on developing students’ higher-order thinking in history (i.e. historical thinking and reasoning) both in Taiwan and around the globe, it has then become more and more important to investigate students’ historical epistemic beliefs. Despite this, most scholarly work focuses on scientific and mathematical personal epistemology, leaving the discipline of history underexplored. To fill in such a salient gap, this study implemented a mix-method research design with the use of Epistemic Network Analysis to explore high school students’ trajectory of historical epistemic beliefs. This study implemented a mix-method research design with the use of Epistemic Network Analysis. Twenty-one high school students were recruited for the study. Data was collected with semi-structured interviews at the start and end of one academic year to investigate the changes in their personal epistemology. Data was then transcribed and coded with the coding framework developed in this study. The results are shown in the pattern-based model for each individual student's trajectory during the course of one academic year. A t-test was used to examine the differences between the first and second sets of interview data of each student. Six participating students witnessed a significant change (p < 0.05) in their historical epistemic beliefs within one year. The students shifted from a more naïve and simple perspective about the nature of history to a more sophisticated stance in which they started to acknowledge the complexity of history due to the consideration of historical contexts. The students also became more aware of the subjectivity in the formation of historical knowledge and, thus, the limitation and uncertainty of the objective truth. Moreover, a fine-grained qualitative analysis of these students was provided to present a more holistic perspective. The evidence indicates that students' epistemic beliefs are not easily categorised, as they display different stances towards various aspects of historical knowledge. Furthermore, students have become more critically engaged in historical thinking and have adopted a more discerning attitude towards history class. This pioneering research not only provides a solid foundation for future investigations in the field but also carries significant implications for enhancing history education and fostering critical thinking skills in students. Limitations and future applications are also discussed at the end of the paper.