“The monument is a lie”: facing difficult history through role-play in simulation

Purpose Our study investigates how middle and high school students faced difficult history through role-play in an online simulation. Participants from ten secondary schools played historic or contemporary figures and deliberated on a contentious issue: What should happen to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery? During the simulation, students voted on the monument’s future and provided justifications for their decisions. Design/methodology/approach Our study utilized data from students’ posts within the simulation. Employing a critical thinking and simulation pedagogy framework, grounded theory data analysis techniques were applied to examine and interpret these posts. Findings Our analysis revealed that students confronted difficult historical issues in several ways: they validated contradictory perspectives, compared their character’s views to their own, and evaluated the historical merit of the monument. These processes were linked with three critical thinking skills: evaluating, perspective-taking, and decision-making. Originality/value We propose that educators incorporate simulation-based critical thinking activities in their curricula. We advocate for the use of debriefing as a method for enhancing perspective-taking and emphasize the interrelationship among critical thinking skills. Building on our findings, we introduce a new model to illustrate how students might apply critical thinking skills within simulation. The study concludes with a discussion of the importance of applying this framework to teaching difficult history as a component of educating for democratic citizenship.