Files
Abstract
Historical empathy is examined in this study as an aspect of historical understanding that gifted social studies students possess. Identifying those students that show an exceptional aptitude for historical empathy involved coding student essays according to an established definition of historical empathy. The identified students were then interviewed and the results are recorded in this paper. An analysis of historical empathy is given through the review of literature presenting a broad description of the many characteristics of the subject. This is a generic qualitative study which enables the recording of aspects of historical empathy that are discovered in both the essays and interviews of the student participants. The coding system created for this study can be used in further research to examine historical empathy as it is displayed by different groups of individuals and the implications revealed by such research.