In this essay we discuss the shared vision for a critical Latinx pedagogy that has emerged from our five-year collaboration as professor and TA of a large undergraduate Latinx history course. We discuss specific classroom practices through which we seek to "embrace," "engage" and "empower" diverse Latinx students; to…

In this article, Dan Lyndon-Cohen makes the case that history departments should move from diversifying the curriculum to decolonising it. After reflecting on some examples of how he made the content of his lessons more representative, he explores how the influence of writers such as Michel-Rolph Trouillot and Emma Dabiri inspired him to find…

Educators often wonder exactly how the textbooks that end up in students' hands were approved. In this article, the author explores one significant stage in the process in California, the nation's largest textbook market. The Instructional Quality Commission (IQC), an advisory board to the California Department of Education's (CDE) State Board of…

This article traces how Mexican American Studies (MAS) scholar activists led and supported a statewide movement for MAS in Texas. As a Xicana feminist scholar activist, Saldan~a draws from her retrospective memory and personal archive of organizational notes, movement documents, personal testimonies before the State Board of Education, and photos,…

A narrative of racial progress abounds in U.S. history, making it difficult for teachers to present complex interpretations of racial/ethnic discrimination. Historical complexity challenges such simplistic notions of race/ethnicity and encourages critical thinking. Adding anti-essentialist historical content about Latinx communities is one way to…

Students often ask, "Why do we have to study history?" and teachers struggle with how to answer. If a history teacher's purpose is to simply teach students about historical events, then Dimension Four of the "College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework," "Communicating conclusions and taking informed action," seems…

This chapter describes the author's experience teaching ethnic studies inside a unique California prison, and calls for college-in-prison educators to engage culturally appropriate curricula to realize the full transformative potential of the prison classroom.

Disciplinary literacy encompasses not only the ability to read the texts of a discipline, but also to engage in the practices and discourse of that discipline. At the center of the discipline of history is inquiry. For these students to move from their ninth grade expectations about history toward the authentic discipline of history, they would…

The dismissal of students' backgrounds by the educational system has a deep effect on communities of color, perpetuating a system that sets them up for academic failure. Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2012) created terminology for the process of systematic fragmentation, which she describes as an act of dismissal on a macro-level. This article…

Teachers who are no longer considered novices can have a difficult time admitting failures. There is an expectation that teachers should be "on" all the time, but disorientation can happen even to veteran teachers--or maybe especially to veteran teachers--if expectations are too high. Sarah Cooper, an experienced teacher and dean of…

International revulsion at the violation of human rights during World War II helped spark a global movement to define and protect individual human rights. Starting with the creation of war crimes tribunals after the war, this newfound awareness stimulated a concerted international effort to establish human rights for all, both in periods of war…

Recent innovations in Web-based technology tools have made planning instruction with technology in mind far more doable than in years past. To aid teachers in planning with technology, tools are organized into five broad categories: communication, collaboration, presentation, organization and critical-thinking. The purpose and potential of each…

A text can be anything: a poem, a map, an old letter. To spur great learning, it needs to be provocative, powerful, open to multiple interpretations, and, above all, it needs to teach something profound. A school building can also become text when a teacher uses place as a way to make history come alive. The author discusses how he uses Theodore…

Lauren Gallant is committed to making social justice issues part of her U.S. history teaching. An avid user of Teaching Tolerance materials, she's always in search of tools "that help illuminate the subject matter and the human condition." But the Simi Valley High School, Calif., teacher has a typical challenge: There is little time for…

The American Historical Association (AHA) and the National Council for History Education (NCHE) have recently advocated for raising the visibility of historians--and the significance of history coursework and subject matter preparation--in pre-service history teacher education. In 2006, NCHE adopted a position statement on history teacher…