“A Sense of the Moral Weight of the Past”: Framing Ethical and Affective Significance in Relation to Swedish Middle-School Students and Historical Empathy

Abstract

Building on a previous study of Swedish middle-school students’ perspectives on historical significance (Sjölund Åhsberg, 2024b), where students expressed a strong moral engagement with the past, this article further explores and defines two tentative criteria: ethical and affective significance. Using thematic analysis of focus-group interviews and relating the findings to historical empathy (Karn, 2023), the study shows that ethical significance involves making moral judgments about history that students care about and wish to change, while affective significance reflects more intuitive emotional responses. The results indicate that students are highly interested in ethically significant history and its implications for the present and future, yet experience the history classroom as largely silent on these issues. Students also express feelings of guilt and responsibility in relation to ethically challenging histories and a desire to engage with these topics in greater depth. The findings point to didactical opportunities for a more inclusive and engaging history education and highlight guilt as an underexplored dimension of historical significance.