In this article the authors examine The Student as Historian project in highlighting how critical historical thinking can provide other and more complex renditions of history. The authors note that teachers' understandings of educational ends, purposes, values, and critical content knowledge are entwined and inextricable from ideological stances…

This essay examines Leo Strauss's pedagogical method in his teaching on rights. The goal in this essay is not to present Strauss's argument for or against any particular conception of rights. In fact, it is to dissuade readers of Strauss from seeking such conclusions within Strauss's texts, and to argue that readers' attention turn toward the…

Defends the Bradley Commission on History in Schools' and the National Commission on Social Studies' recommendations that history should be the basis of social studies instruction. Discusses claims that such an approach is ideologically conservative and unsupported by research. Addresses the suggestion that the study of social problems is the…

Argues that historians have often neglected ideological forces that have shaped their work. Offers a meta-analysis of the ideological dimensions of historical scholarship. Proposes a social psychoanalytical approach to history. Argues that a recognition of the connection between past and present would expose the ties between history and politics.…

Discusses the relationship of ideology, social theory, critical analysis, hegemony, and objectivity in the work of educational historians. Comments that the training of educational historians often neglects intensive ideological analysis of historical research. Argues that study of historiographical methodology and consciousness of its dimensions…

Discusses the genesis of the Bradley Commission on History in Schools. Provides a response to the following criticisms launched against the commission: that the commission was part of a neoconservative counterattack and that it failed to recommend a single curriculum for the nation. Maintains that neither of these criticisms are correct and…

Discusses a study of teacher conceptions of the meaning of history. Concludes that history teachers tend fall into five broad categories: (1) storyteller; (2) scientific historian; (3) relativist/reformer; (4) cosmic philosopher; and (5) eclectic. Suggests that teaching should be grounded in an explicit educational philosophy that is developed in…

A report from Thomas B. Fordham Foundation reveals the complaints of some social studies educators regarding the teaching of American history in US classrooms. Students, they say, should study an American history that emphasizes "true heroes of the American story." Further, these educators believe that students should be freed from the alleged…

Criticizes the American Federation of Teachers publication, "Education for Democracy." Argues that the terms democracy, freedom, and rights are not clearly defined. Emphasizes the political nature of the document and the ethnocentrism represented by the writing. Makes suggestions for improvement. (KO)

Critiques current views of multiculturalism. Reveals results of a student survey concerning a Canadian history curriculum. Indicates that students express concern for Eurocentrism, insensitivity to Native peoples, and sex bias uniformly, but ignore other minorities. Explores multiculturalism's ideological bases. Identifies the movement with…

In this article, the author discusses the contradictory goals of several groups and individuals that are waging war against social studies and the historians' attitudes in response to this war. He stresses that he is not claiming that these "strange bedfellows," as he comes to call them, that are attacking social studies are working in…

A committee of secondary school and college educators met in 2001 to develop content standards for teaching public school history. Adam Scrupski came away from that meeting amazed at the arrogance with which they imposed on New Jersey students, the firmly held belief that the story of America is predominantly one of capitalist, imperialist…

There are English, math, science, and other core subjects, and there are young minds. Schools of education are supposed to prepare and furnish the guides who bring the former into the latter, but the bankrupt ideology they impart to educators obstructs that transfer. Sandra Stotsky says that if we give the job of training teachers to the…

Criticizes the National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools' report, "Charting a Course: Social Studies for the 21st Century," for its contradictions, traditionalist views, positivistic approach to social science, and failure to identify ways to teach democratic values. Suggests that the report qualifies as an updated version of…

A thesis concocted by right-wing ideological watchdogs and advanced with elevated urgency in the wake September 11, 2001, claims that America's college and university students are hostage to a leftist, "moral-relativist" and multiculturalist professoriat. To restore right-thinking to college campuses, the argument continues, academic…