Evaluating secondary school students’ ability to develop Historical Empathy through the Press

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of press, specifically newspapers, on the development and cultivation of historical empathy of secondary school students. Our study focuses on testing students. After reading newspapers, they are asked about the Asia Minor catastrophe, as an exercise in empathetic content and logical understanding, to approach historical events, without necessarily accepting them, and to describe their perspectives. The study seeks to investigate whether press as a historical source can contribute to productive thinking through the mental revival of the events described. The analysis of students" responses focuses on aspects of historical empathy: historical formation, logical understanding, emotional elements. The results showed that all students experienced mentally specific historical details of the past but mainly developed emotions, while in the actions of the historical figures they recognized implied purposes by putting themselves in a similar historical context.