Primary Objective: This study examines student reaction to a unit of instruction teaching war through a more critical lens focusing on anti-war movements and how student sense of civic agency was impacted. Research Design: A design study that centered student voice on activism and experiences of a unit of instruction of the USA at war. Design…

Examining the political activism of high school students provides a window to fully understand the rich history and resistance of young people of color from South Central Los Angeles who blazed the trail in many crucial battles during the civil rights era. Researching John C. Fremont High School's history shows that the high school reflects a…

This article describes two Socratic Seminar discussions, one focused on questioning just war and the other offering a perspective on how to end war. These discussions are the focus of this article because they show the complex and nuanced thinking and questioning students engaged in about what might constitute a just war (if anything) and how war…

In this article, I discuss one approach of implementing thematic teaching in the high school social studies classroom exploring the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. First, a short summary for the type of high school social studies classroom envisioned in the C3 Framework by NCSS is discussed. Then, I define thematic teaching and the…

Purpose: To construct the life history of an exemplary veteran African American physical education teacher education faculty member. Method: The participant was Dr. Andrew Lewis, a retired professor from the College of Charleston. Data were collected through formal semistructured interviews, informal interviews, and documents and artifacts. They…

This study examines the movement to integrate LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) history into high school US history courses. Using such primary sources as government documents, classroom resources, and organizational agendas, and oral history interviews with teachers, gay rights activists, and scholars, the study probes grassroots…

High school social studies teachers play an important role in fostering the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students need to thrive after graduation. These efforts can also help counter Truth Decay--the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life. Although several factors, such as state standards and assessments,…

This article discusses Black teacher activism during Jim Crow through a case study of the Florida State Teachers Association. Few studies have examined the response of Black teacher associations to Jim Crow educational policies. This study examines inequities in school and teacher salaries and the FSTA's response by way of campaigns, rhetoric and…

While the conceptual work on critical pedagogy is undeniably rich, few empirical studies have examined its applications in K-12 classroom settings and impacts on students. Based on ethnographic research in 2 public 11th grade U.S. History classrooms with critical teachers, this article describes 3 pedagogies that enhanced students' critical…

AERA's 2016 theme is an exciting call for educational research that draws on history to inform present challenges and abiding societal dilemmas. In this regard, recent studies of African American segregated schooling have begun to illuminate the vibrancy, resilience, resourcefulness and professionalism that existed in African American school…

This paper focuses on how shifting conceptions of youth underpinned young people's activism in the 1950s and 1960s. This paper specifically examines conceptions of youth as it changed throughout the twentieth century. G. Stanley Hall articulated a distinct notion of "adolescence" in the early twentieth century. But the "Scottsboro…

Engaging in student-centered learning with primary sources has become a priority in the teaching of history in classrooms throughout the educational spectrum. Approaching photographic evidence in the history classroom through a contextualized and systematic method of analysis is one way of involving students actively in their own education while…

Through an interpretive analysis of how high school American history textbooks depict the urban-riots of the late-1960s, in this article the author discusses how textbooks incorporate and abject official knowledge related to the intersections of race and poverty. Incorporation is related with Raymond Williams' theory of the selective tradition and…

How have U.S. high school textbook depictions of World War II and Vietnam changed since the 1970s? We examined 102 textbooks published from 1970 to 2009 to see how they treated U.S. involvement in World War II and Vietnam. Our content analysis of high school history textbooks finds that U.S. textbooks increasingly focus on the personal experiences…

For more than forty years, parents, teachers, veterans, and community activists have engaged in grassroots resistance to the military's presence in schools. The historical study of campaigns against militarism in schools remains underdeveloped. This is a glaring omission, given the breadth and history of this activism. Militarism in the…