This study is an overview of the chequered nature of history education in Lesotho primary schools. It highlights the nineteenth century missionary-led, humble beginnings and goals of formal education, which did not change much during almost a century of British colonial rule. The thrust of the study is that Lesotho primary schools currently teach…

A successful middle school team of teachers employed effective middle level philosophy to structure a curriculum around themes that were relevant, challenging, integrative, and engaging for their particular students and community. Realizing that their young adolescents were involved in tough, delicate issues in their out-of-school lives, the…

This study uses a bounded case to investigate how students engage in historical inquiry using digital historical sources. Drawing on research and theory related to historical thinking, digital history and new literacies, this study explores how students located historical documents in an online archive and then analyzed those documents given…

Education in the twenty-first century requires that all students learn the social studies skills that help them understand the complex issues related to civic ideals and practices. One of these skills is developing multiple perspective-taking. Many educators believe that this critical thinking ability is not only for upper level students but also…

A revision of the Northern Ireland Primary Curriculum took place in 2007. It promotes strongly a cross-curricular or thematic approach to planning and teaching and has an "Area of Learning" structure which includes geography alongside history and science and technology in an area called "The World Around Us". Responses from…

Barbara Cruz describes how what began as a challenge (i.e., finding or justifying the time to spend on history instruction in an environment of high-stakes testing) turned into a rich learning experience for students using historical fiction. By designing experiences that were literacy centered but based in historical content, this group of…

"Proceedings of International Conference on Humanities, Social and Education Sciences" includes full papers presented at the International Conference on Humanities, Social and Education Sciences (iHSES), which took place on April 22-25, 2021, in New York, New York. The aim of the conference is to offer opportunities to share ideas, to…

Following an identification strategy that allows us to largely eliminate unobserved student and teacher traits, we examine the effect of homework on math, science, English and history test scores for eighth grade students in the United States. Noting that failure to control for these effects yields selection biases on the estimated effect of…

As a result of dramatic demographic changes during the last half century as well as a series of recent events surrounding prominent personas, the Dutch have been engaged in an intense debate about their national identity and how citizenship education can contribute to the integration of Muslim immigrants in particular. This article analyses the…

Historical thinking is an integral part of understanding and doing history, as well as a good example of the kind of critical thinking necessary in today's society. This study, conducted in two phases, investigated ways in which students are brought to this higher level of thinking in the social studies classroom. Data collection occurred…

In an examination of how content knowledge influenced her initial third grade social studies teaching experiences, Suzanne Wilson found that it, among other things, helped her "to hear what students say" and in her students' comments were "often...the seeds of complex and sophisticated historical ideas." She also found content…

In 1998, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center launched OurStory: History through Children's Literature, a history and literacy program series for family visitors to the Museum that was designed to help children and adults enjoy exploring history together. Ten years later, to reach a broader, national…

Metacom's War, also known as King Phillip's War, sets a pattern of national expansion through displacement of native people that echoes throughout American history. Helping students further understand this war through the examination of Mary Rowlandson's primary document provides educators and students with an opportunity to delve deeper into the…

Drawing on my work in the U.S., I briefly discuss four related hallmarks of teaching for social justice in diverse classrooms, supported by research on their impact on students. They include explicitly recognizing and working with students' culture as a basis for learning, teaching key concepts in the curriculum through content and examples drawn…

This qualitative study addressed the problem of students' lack of trust of and interest in U.S. history and focused on students' experiences with official and unofficial versions of history in the middle school social studies classroom. A collective case study of five African American students was conducted in an eighth grade classroom at Carroll…