Ethical Interpretation of History
Ethical Interpretation has been described as interpretation that addresses histories of historically excluded people whose experiences have been under or misrepresented and does so by recognizing their individuality, achievement, and challenges. Ethical Interpretation involves collaboration with the community being interpreted, and connects past, present, and future conditions for learners.
The Principles for Ethical Interpretation are in two parts: principles for developing content and principles for interacting with others and ourselves.
Principles for Developing Content
Interpretive content should be grounded in sound research and knowledge about the museum’s or site's resources. An understanding of history and historic resources help us find meaning and relevancy in the people, places, events, and objects of the past. By including and integrating hidden stories with well-known ones, we can share a more holistic and authentic history. One that reveals people in their fundamental human dignity and allows us to have empathy and compassion for them and us, their descendants.
Principles for Interacting with Ourselves and Others
Ethical interpretation begins with interpreters practicing introspection and self-awareness. It is critical to reflect on one’s own relationship to the history being shared because ethical interpretation requires collaboration with communities and individuals whose history is being interpreted. Self-awareness makes it more likely one confidently and sustainably meets learners where they are, no matter the responses to interpretation. Ethical Interpretation is more than just the work of a single person, it recognizes the need to support other interpreters and professionalize the field.
How the Principles Came to Be
The principles for ethically interpreting history were an outcome of events that unfolded in 2015 and the need for a framework to guide interpreters engaging in challenging conversations about slavery and its legacies at McLeod Plantation Historic Site in Charleston, South Carolina. Read my 2018 article for the Public Historian.
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