Definition of Historical Method/Research Characteristics of Historical Method/Research Steps on How to Conduct Historical Method/Research Strengths and Limitations of Historical Method/Research Sample Study

1. Submitted to:
Prof. Maria Victoria C. Hermosisima
Professor
In partial fulfilment of the course requirements in Professional Education 14
(Introduction to Research)
Submitted by:
GROUP 5
Diga, Pearl Dianne R.
Marikit, Shynne Marie P.
Parfan, Kimberly Shane V.
Prospero, Abigail D.
Ramirez, Christian Jireh R.
Roque, Arielle Q.
Vuelban, Vanessa Marie J.
III-15 BEED
Semester I, S.Y 2015-2016
June 25, 2015
Philippine Normal University
The National Center for Teacher Education
Faculty of Education Sciences
Taft, Ave. Manila

2. A. Definition and Areas of History
What is History?
“History is a narration of the events which have happened among mankind,
including an account of the rise and fallof nations, as wellas of other great changes which
have affected the political and social condition of the human race.” John J.
 "Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research, however
patient and scrupulous, into special facts. Such facts may be detailed with the
minutest exactness, and yet the narrative, taken as a whole, may be unmeaning
or untrue. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the
time. He must study events in their bearings near and remote; in the character,
habits, and manners of those who took part in them. He must himself be, as it
were, a sharer or a spectator of the action he describes." Francis Parkman
 History (from Greek ἱστορία, historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by
investigation")[2] is the study of the past, particularly how it relates to
humans.[3][4]It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the
memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of
information about these events. Scholars who write about history are
called historians. Events occurring prior to written record are
considered prehistory.
Areas of History Studies
 Working with their advisors, graduate students in History, particularly in the Ph.D.
program, are encouraged to develop innovative fields of study tailored to their
individual interests. Thematic, comparative, and methodological fields that cut
across conventional geographical and chronological boundaries are all possible.
Below are general descriptions of the various areas of geographical focus of our
faculty and their thematic interests and approaches.
1. African and Middle Eastern history
2. Asian history
3. European history
4. Latin American history
5. United States history
B. Views on the Value of Historical Research

3. There are many divergent views regarding to the usefulness of historical research,
there are those believes that historical research helps us to broaden our experiences and
make us more understanding and appreciative of our human nature and uniqueness. They
conclude that by knowing our past, we know the present condition better, although we
may not be able to predict accurately, using the facts in history it can nevertheless
familiarize us with what we attempt to do before.
 Nietzsche's View of the Value of Historical Studies and Methods
o Nietzsche is generally regarded as a severe and hostile critic of historical
studies, and it is possible that the expression "historical sickness"
(historische Krankheit) was made current through him.
o Favors myths and action and the belief in great men and events.
o Affirm life through an affirmation of one's roots, traditions, and identity.
o Liberate those who feel oppressed by tradition. Nietzsche also suggests
remedies for the exaggerated concern with history in the nineteenth
century that is, emphasizing the unhistorical and the over historical.
C. Characteristics of Contemporary Historical Researches
 Present Historical Research investigations primarily aimfor critical search for truth.
 The aim of contemporary history is to conceptualise, contextualise and historicise –
to explain – some aspect of the recent past or to provide a historical understanding
of current trends or developments
 There is no agreed definition of what time period constituted contemporary history
has existed – or can exist. This is because what has needed to be explained in recent
history has varied from country to country, from group to group and, even within
countries, from time to time.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH
These are as follows:
1. It is not a mere accumulation of facts and data or even a portrayal of past
events.
2. It is a flowing, vibrant report of past events which involves an analysis and
explanation of these occurrences with the objective of recapturing the nuances,
personalities and ideas that influenced these events.
3. Conducting historical research involves the process of collecting and reading
the research material collected and writing the manuscript from the data collected.
The researcher often goes back-and-forth between collecting, reading, and writing.
i.e. the process of data collection and analysis are done simultaneously are not two
distinct phases of research.

4. 4. It deals with discovery of data that already exists and does not involve
creation of data using structured tools.
5. It is analytical in that it uses logical induction.
6. It has a variety of foci such as issues, events, movements and concepts.
7. It records and evaluates the accomplishments of individuals, agencies or
institutions
D. Steps/Methods of Historical Research
 Elusive subject-matter - the past, and the peculiarly difficult task of interpretation
which this is elusive nature of then subject matter.
1. Formulating Problem
 Take a look one by one at the important motives or reasons which caused
you to doubt or to get interested about certain gaps in knowledge in
relation to a past event or experience. From here, draw asimple, clear, and
a fairly complete description of your problem.
 The focus for you historical research may be individuals, institutions,
curricula, textbooks, facilities, projects or programs, procedures,
structures and processes, events, concepts, ideas, and phenomena which
occur during a particular period of time in a given setting and culture.
 You may direct your study in a subculture determined by nationality, social
strata, religion, sex, age or occupation.
 You may limit your investigation in one era or epoch and one sequence of
events in a local, provincial, regional, or national setting.
 Comparison of events in different periods, different societies, or different
civilizations.
2. Gathering your source materials
 Look out for many varied evidences of the activities engaged in by people
who lived in the past.
 It is necessary at this point to be familiar with the different types of
historical sources which you may avail of as you conduct your data
collection.
a. Classification of historical sources
 Classified as primary or secondary (Fox, 1969)
 Primary source is regarded as the source of the “best evidence”.
This is because the data come from the testimony of able eye and
ear witnesses to past events. They may also consist of actual

5. objects used in the past which you can directly scrutinize or
examine.
 Secondary sources are information supplied by a person who was
not a direct observer or participant of the event, object, or
condition.
 Another classification of historical sources is based on whether the
recording of data was deliberate or inadvertent.
 Deliberatesources provide data which have been recorded with the
conscious effort to preserve information (Fox, 1969). Diaries and
epitaphs are examples of these.
 Inadvertent sources supply information for your historical study
even though that was not original intention of the source.
Inadvertent sources present the great task of making accurate
inferences to interpret the material.
 Good and Scates (1972) give two broad divisions which classify
existing historical sources. These are: (1) reports of events called
documents, which are composed of impressions have been
consciously recorded with the aim of transmitting information. (2)
Physical objects or written materials of historical value; these are
called remains or relics and are produced without deliberately
aiming to impart information.
 Van Delan (1979) enumerates the types of historical records which
may be available in written, pictorial, and mechanical forms.
1. Photographs
2. Paintings
3. Official records
4. Personal records
5. Oral traditions
6. Pictorial records
7. Sculpture
8. Movies
9. Slides
10. Coins
 Also published newspapers, journals, pamphlets, literary and philosophical
records of speeches and reading activities.
 The possibility of interviewing people, of capturing their memories and
interrogating them for information, has been a resource available only to
historians working on the recent past. The use of oral history has helped

6. to recover the history of those who may not have left written records
behind or who were in other ways silent. The history of working-class
lives, for example, has been better brought to life by oral history.
 Securing the best evidence from the persons who were directly participants in
or observers of the actualevent of objects. When you get the testimony of this
first-hand source, you will note that one mind, that of the originally happened,
and you, the user of the information.
3. Criticizing your source materials
 To detect whether a document is unintentionally erroneous or deliberately
produced to misinform.
 A remain is genuine unless you have tried by scientific means to determine
how reliable and trustworthy it is. This means that you need to apply
meticulous external and internal criticisms to your source materials.
4. Writing the Research Report
 The writing of historical research has to be a little freer so as to allow
subjective interpretation of the data. (This by no means implies distortion of
truth).
 There are several board ways of reporting historical investigation as follows :
o The researcher can report the historical facts as answers to different
research questions. Answer to each question could be reported in a
separate chapter.
o He / she can present the facts in a chronological order with each
chapter pertaining to a specific historical period chronologically.
o Report can alsowritten in athematic manner where eachchapter deals
with a specific theme / topic.
o Chapters could also deal with each state of India or each district of an
Indian state separately.
o Chapter could also pertain to specific historical persons separately.
o The researcher can also combine two or more of these approaches
while writing the research report.
 In addition, the report should contain a chapter each on introduction,
methodology, review of related literature, findings, the researcher’s
interpretations and reflections on the interpretative process.
E. Criticizing Your Source Materials
 Evidence – looks at the problem from the viewpoint of the data
 Criticism – regard the same problem from the psychological attitude of the
researcher

7. External Evidence or External Criticism
Question: “Is it genuine?”
 Seeks to determine whether the document that has come to the researcher`s
hands or the artifact that claims attention is genuinely valid primary data.
 Important for the credibility of the research.
Internal Evidence or Internal Criticism
Questions
 “What does it mean?”
 “What was the author attempting to say?”
 “What thought was the author trying to convey?”
 “What inferences or interpretation could be extracted from the words?”
 External and Internal Criticism
a. External (Lower) Criticism
 Asks if the evidence under consideration is authentic
 Involves techniques
 Theoretically, the main purpose of external criticism is the
establishment of historical truth, in reality its actual operation is
chiefly restricted to the negative role i.e. to identity and expose
forgeries, frauds, hoaxes desertions and counterfeits.
 In other words, it examines the document and its external features
rather than the statements it contains. It tries to determine
whether
(a) the information it contains was available at the time the
document was written?
(b) this information is consistent with what is known about the
author or the period from another source?
Ex. Authentication of signatures, chemical analysis of paint, carbon
dating of artifacts
b. Internal (Higher) Criticism
 Evaluating the worth of the evidence
 Concerned with the accuracy and meaning of the data contained in
the document.
 It deals answering questions such as what does it mean? What was
the author attempting to say? What thought was the author trying
to convey? Is it possiblethat people would act in the way described
in the document? Is it possible that events described occurred so

8. quickly? What inferences or interpretations could be extracted
from these words? Do the financial data / figures mentioned in the
document seemreasonable for that period in the past? What does
the decision of a court mean? What do the words of the decision
convey regarding the intent and the will of the count? Is there any
(unintended) misinformation given in the document? Is there any
evidence of deception? and so on here, the researcher needs to be
very cautious so that he does not reject a statement only because
the event described in the document appears to be improbable.
 Best answered by comparing it with others that throw light on an
event or provide further information about an event and the
people and circumstances surrounding it.
F. The Strengths and Limitations Of Historical Research
 Historical research can only give a fractional view of the past; its knowledge is
never complete and is derived from the surviving records of a limited number of
past events. It is therefore, a matter of conjecture how history can represent past
events adequately. History also depends on valuable materials which are difficult
to preserve.
 Some scholars contend that history requires a different method and
interpretation becauseof its elusivesubject matter (the past). Then, too, it has the
difficulty of critically examining the sources through which facts are ascertained.
Causes of past events are also difficult to determine so that historians resort to
manipulate hypothesis.
 Another weakness is the absenceof technicalterminology in history research. This
blocks the communication of ideas and information. Words and statements mean
different thing to different people, culture and time.
 Historians cannot agree, too, on the extent to which they can make
generalizations. Some believed that they can make post-dictions about past
events but it is beyond their power to predict future events.
 History is life – and like the other pursuits, its contribution is to seek for the truth
about people and events while its domain is the distant and recent past, it strives
in its own methodology to represent a synthesis of knowledge of the past.
Hopefully, this may help us make decision about our current problems with
greater intelligence and economy of time and effort.

9. G. Sample Study
‘Taking the Long Journey’: Australian Women who served with allied
countries and paramilitary organizations during the Great War
Selena Williams
On 17 February1918, Douska Kahanwho wasborn inSale,Victoria in1884, sailed
from New York to Bordeaux, France to begin work with the American Red Cross. This study will
examine Douska’s experiences and ‘road to war’ and that of many other independent Australian
women who worked with medical and paramilitary organizations for countries other than their
own, during the Great War. Some joined the medical services of England, New Zealand, South
Africa and Canada while others took on humanitarian and philanthropic work using remarkable
initiative and resilience in the face of living conditions that were often harsh and unrelenting.
There was also the constant risk of illness or injury from shell fire and if working on a hospital ship,
from mines and torpedoes. This thesis will explore the circumstances around the war service and
‘road to war’ of this largely undocumented group of women, to examine factors that governed
their war service in England, Serbia, France, Belgium and Egypt. Why did these independent
women serve for a country other than Australia? How did they deal with patriarchal controls, both
private and political? This thesis will use standard social, cultural and women’s history
methodology to examine the pattern of female travel, class, social and religious background and
the gendered division of labor and gender and war. It will therefore ask to what degree, the
motivations and war service of these women was guided by value-systems, institutional practices
and traditions. By undertaking a transnational study of political, economic, social and cultural
factors, this study will show if war service expanded or restricted the identities of these women.
Was their war service valued and by whom, or was as it hidden behind the exploits of the ‘digger’
and the profoundly masculine Anzac Legend that developed when the war ended?

10. H. References
Ary, D., & Jacobs, L. (2009). Types of Qualitative Research. In Introduction to Research
in Education (8th ed., p. 468). Cengage Learning.
Consuelo G. Sevilla et. Al (1988). Introduction to Research Methods (pg. 42-68)
Delos Reyes, A.M. (2003). A Historical Study on the Growth and Development of the
Elementary Department of Colegio De San Juan Letran, Manila 1971-2001: An Initial Attempt.
Philippine Normal University, Taft Ave., Manila
Leedy, P. (1993). The Historical Study. In Practical Research: Planning and Design (5th
ed., pp. 224-225). Macmillan Publishing Company.
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