Teaching about slavery entails teaching about the archive. Punctuated with silences, scattered with compelling details, and laden with descriptions that oscillate between racist, harrowing, and heartbreaking, runaway ads provide a glimpse into the lives of enslaved people. The details embedded within them--or omitted from them--can also provide…

In a time when some nonfiction historical books for children and young adults have drawn concern and critique for sharing difficult histories, teachers may be looking for ways to contextualize those narratives and provide more support for students as they engage in these histories. Going beyond the book with primary sources can help provide that…

The authors provide an overview of teaching war and explore ways to situate these notions in the elementary classroom. As part of this discussion, they offer a guide for selecting appropriate texts for a thematic text set for children involving issues of war and peace.

In 2017, the Oregon Legislature enacted Senate Bill 13, known as Tribal History/Shared History. This bill was the culmination of decades of organizing and curriculum work by the nine federally recognized Tribes within Oregon. The law directs the Oregon Department of Education to develop a K-12 Native American curriculum in partnership with Oregon…

The author reflects upon how her field of African American history is in the crosshairs of this most recent battle of the nation's culture war. Once maybe regarded as a niche or narrow area of history (although it is not), African American history has become one of many targets of legislative and activist efforts to end the teaching of honest,…

The methods of teaching history in grades 6-12 have changed over the last few years to be more interactive and collaborative. More and more, teaching and learning revolves around an essential triad of inquiry, primary sources, and literacy in a collaborative classroom environment. "Teaching History Today" is about placing inquiry,…

The 'knowledge turn' in curriculum studies has drawn attention to the central role that knowledge of the disciplines plays in education, and to the need for new thinking about how we understand knowledge and knowledge-building. "Knowing History in Schools" explores these issues in the context of teaching and learning history through a…

Neil Bates and Robert Bowry have chosen to tackle the issue of curriculum coherence by including local history, both as starting point for new students joining the school in Year 7 and as a golden thread running throughout their Key Stage 3 curriculum. In this article they explain the rationale for their plans, focusing not only on the powerful…

Coverage of heritage and archeology in formal education is typically limited. These subjects are typically taught through specific and anecdotal activities that do not respond to a specific methodological foundation. School-museum relationships offer numerous benefits for design participation experiences with long-term perspectives in conducting…

This article features highlights from an integrated curricular unit designed to challenge how the gender gap influences young learners' gender stereotypes of STEM professions by allowing students to question their own biases about these occupations while learning herstory. It was implemented in a third-grade classroom in a suburban elementary…

"Isn't this just common sense? I don't see the point of having to read this," a student in a pre-service introductory methods class groaned. In another class, a student questioned why so much space in an article was devoted to race, stating that it seemed unnecessary and was "common sense." While the pre-service teachers…

We often hear that a key purpose of schooling is to prepare students for informed and active citizenship. But what does this look like in practice? How do teachers pursue this goal amid other pressing priorities, including student mastery of both academic content and social-emotional competencies? "Students Taking Action Together," based…

We are all our history. Yet in Canadian classrooms, students are often left questioning how they can study a past that does not reflect their present. Despite curricular revisions, the mainstream narrative that shapes the way we teach students about the Canadian nation can be divisive, separating "us" from "them." Responding to…

Get started with an innovative approach to teaching history that develops literacy and higher-order thinking skills, connects the past to students' lives, and meets state and national standards (grades 7-12). Now in a second edition, this popular book provides an introductory unit to help teachers build a trustful classroom climate; over 70…

Political history lends itself to traditional patterns of teaching and learning in social studies such as students memorizing facts presented in lectures or textbooks. This article presents a recurring activity structure for teaching U.S. political history--Consensus Circle Presidential Rating (CCPR)--which requires students to read across…