Engaging emotion is essential to effective history instruction. This may strike some as a banal observation, as we have long known that student enthusiasm and engagement are key elements of learning. If asked, many teachers would use emotionally-laden vocabulary to describe their commitment to the profession: love of history, passion about student…

The nationwide commemoration in 2020 of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment is an opportunity to explore not only women's long struggle to achieve this landmark moment, but also to engage in an exploration of women's civic engagement during the woman suffrage movement. The terms "woman suffrage" and "suffragist" often…

In the 1930s, suffragist and women's rights activist Maud Wood Park "had the happy idea of dramatizing a series of episodes from Lucy Stone's life." This idea resulted in the publication, in 1938, of a 162-page nine-act play, "Lucy Stone: A Chronicle Play," based on a biography of the abolitionist and suffragist by her…

It is a charge commonly laid at history teachers that we, myopically, teach only the same-old same-old. Steven Driver has taken extreme steps to avoid this by focusing on a particular neglected event -- the American occupation of Nicaragua in the early twentieth century -- as part of his preparation of his students for A-level coursework. He…

Faced with the introduction of the new A-levels in 2015 and with a move to a new school, Eleanor Thomas took the opportunity to embrace yet another challenge: giving her students a complete free choice about the focus of their non-examined assessment (NEA). This article presents the rationale for her decision, acknowledging the challenges that it…

Teaching economic history requires the study of how to combine the economists' modeling and statistical methods with the methods used by historians and the other social sciences. It often involves learning how to search for quantitative data from a variety of sources and then building panel datasets that match the data found with existing…

This article sets out to challenge conventional descriptions and explanations of war and teaching about war. It draws on raw data from three qualitative arts-based projects to illustrate the complexity of cognitive and affective understandings of the place of war, past, present and future, through the jarring dissonance of "mash-up"--a…

Making a passionate case for teaching Black British history in the secondary school curriculum, Hannah shares here the personal journey she has travelled in planning for Black British history in her curriculum. She cites her inspirations and offers striking examples to illustrate her rationale and approach to teaching this history. Hannah…

Much has been written in recent years about how historical scholarship can be used to shape practice in the classroom. As an historian of the medieval period now working as an history teacher, Dhwani Patel offers a fresh perspective on these debates. During her PGCE year, Patel found herself reflecting on how the lenses and methodologies that…

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the vast social-psychological, economic, and political inequities in our society. Education has become even more important than before to counter systemic oppression and institute justice. Parents, students, and educators are thrown into chaos where opportunity and access are diminished and dissipated. This…

I am a teacher educator from South Korea. In this article, I introduce two international children's books on the Korean War and a fifth grade lesson based on the books to teach the Korean War through a critical lens. Before proceeding, I first explicate why teaching about wars critically, including the Korean War, is vital.

In this article, the authors discuss the possibilities and benefits of inquiry-based learning at National Park Service (NPS) parks, historic sites, and their companion websites. They also stress that you can extend the guidance and resources that may be provided by any historic monument or park close to your school, whether it is a part of the NPS…

Cisgender women were not permitted to join the armed forces until the Women's Armed Service Integration Act passed in 1984. During the Civil War, some people assigned female at birth enlisted as men. They used "male" names and wore short haircuts, pants, and other traditional "male clothing." Many stories of these soldiers have…

In February 2020, the author was offered a position as a postdoctoral teaching fellow at a large land-grant college in the American West. A couple weeks later, COVID-19 hit in full force. As the newly hired postdoctoral teaching fellow, the author's department chair tasked the author with a challenging assignment -- to develop an asynchronous…

As science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educators in a teacher education program, it was discovered that students have commonly limited preconceptions about technology. Based on classroom experiences, when students are challenged to make a quick list regarding their ideas and examples of technology, they usually focus on…