"Strange Fruit," a song popularized by Billie Holiday in 1939, paints a gruesome picture of racial violence suffered by former African-American slaves following Reconstruction, 1863-1877 (Foner, 2011). While many scholars have analyzed the lyrics of "Strange Fruit", research that focuses on young people's reaction to the song…

In a 2016 survey, just 26% of Americans were able to name all three branches of government, and 31% failed to name even one branch. In 2011, the American Bar Association's (ABA) Commission on Civic Education in the Nation's Schools called the progress of civic education "worrisome" and said, "there is reason to be alarmed at the…

Citizenship education is considered a primary purpose for social studies education. However, in elementary classrooms, it is often limited to the memorization of mainstream civic knowledge and learning about a handful of American heroes. This qualitative study of three Asian American educators uses Asian Critical Race Theory to explore how the…

When examining the efforts of African Americans to create and operate viable primary and secondary schools from 1865 to 1870 in Kentucky, it is difficult to not contemplate what potentially might have been had national support for the Black transition from enslavement to freedom not waned. W.E.B. Dubois and several subsequent historians concluded…

This article critically assesses the works of Paul Monroe, Isaac L. Kandel, and the International Institute at the Teachers College, Columbia University, in the early twentieth century. Drawing on Edward Said's notion of contrapuntal reading, it presents a different account of their legacies that foregrounds the colonial and imperial realities of…

New religious diversity of the late 20th and early 21st centuries requires Americans to move from the idea of a Judeo-Christian America to that of an Interfaith America. This article notes that a big part of America's current problem is how it has sacralized its tribal divide, with tribalism in today's America taking a particularly dangerous turn.…

In this article, the author describes how the hottest show on Broadway, "Hamilton," teamed up with a nonprofit organization and a major foundation in an attempt to reinvent how American history is taught--and motivate 16-year-olds to interact with primary documents from 240 years ago.

Haskell Indian Nations University opened 133 years ago, on September 17, 1884, as the U.S. Training and Industrial School--one of three original tribal boarding schools funded by the United States Congress. Three years later the school changed its name to Haskell Institute in honor of Chase Dudley Haskell, a U.S. representative from the Second…

The public perception of academic institutions and their athletic programs are generally considered a prime factor in building their brand image. Maintaining a favorable institutional brand image can have a meaningful effect when conveying messages to key organizational stakeholders. Schools are to seek strategies aimed at generating positive…

Before there were children with disabilities in typical schools in North America, there was only hope and need. Before the creation of highly specialized plans of education, individualized instruction techniques, methods of differentiating group instruction or regulations mandating the adherence to government regulations, there were only families,…

Despite recent celebrations of diverse beauty in America, whiteness has maintained its foundation as the standard. Historic and contemporary parameters of beauty continue to play a role in not only American society in general, but in higher education. This paper examines the circumstances surrounding the crowning of two Black women as beauty…

Language textbooks present cultural content in a typically homogeneous fashion, thereby ignoring inherent diversity both within and between cultures and reinforcing monodimensional views. Consequently, instructors must find ways to facilitate students' critical engagement with and reflection on cultural representations in order to provide them…

Introducing patriotic holidays such as Veterans Day with historical photographs and other primary sources in classrooms can not only spark children's interest, but also promote critical thinking and historical comprehension. Meaningful, hands-on historical lessons can also motivate children to take informed action about issues they care about. We…

In this article we outline the importance of reinserting the voices, experiences, and contributions of Black women as critical citizens into the narrative of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement. In order to examine the history of Black women as critical civic agents, teachers must interrogate how Black women's raced and gendered identities…

Between 1991 and 2016, employment among White, Black, and Latino workers grew by 20 percent, while employment in good jobs soared by 35 percent. Yet the opportunities and benefits of the modern economy have not accrued evenly across the three groups. Discrimination and a history of racial injustice in this country have led to Whites gaining a…