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…

On December 7th and 8th, 1941, President Roosevelt issued three proclamations stating that any natives, citizens, or subjects of Japan in the United States would be liable to possible arrest, detention, or removal from the United States (Roosevelt 1941). Roosevelt followed the enemy alien proclamations with Executive Order 9066, authorizing the…

Using critical refugee studies as a theoretical lens, I analyzed Southeast Asian refugee children's literature to identify its pedagogical values and limitations for critical teaching about the Vietnam War. The findings suggest the children's literature can help challenge the dominant narratives of the Vietnam War as exclusively an American…

Dr. Jessie Wallace Hughan was a trailblazing New York City public school educator and pacifist. Hughan was a socialist, and she was among numerous teachers who faced investigations for anti-patriotic activities at the turn of the 20th-century, when teachers across the country faced intense scrutiny and legal challenges if they were suspected of…

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 recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the need to understand teaching and learning not just as cognitive but also as affective experiences that are imbued with emotional complexity. There is also an emergent body of research on how to teach difficult knowledge of war. Joining this scholarship, this article presents research…

This manuscript describes the implementation of a co-created (teacher and researcher) unit of instruction focused on the teaching of war. This unit examines war through a critical lens and emphasizes anti-war movements. A design study this research investigated how the teaching of war as difficult knowledge can impact student sense of critical…

This article explores student meaning making in a Grade 11 US history unit on the Second World War. The 10-lesson unit was designed as an experiment that aimed to apply an instructional model of historical consciousness to a classroom context. Although the notion of historical consciousness has gained significant interest in the field of history…

Background/Context: Across the nation, people living in the United States are embroiled in conflict over the meaning of its past. Many of the most fervent conflicts relate to acts of historical violence: war, enslavement, conquest, and colonization among them. Elementary school students commonly study the early colonization of the land now known…

In this historical study, the author traces the contents of classroom materials and methods textbooks published between 1916 and 1966 that endorsed the discussion and deliberation of social issues to demonstrate how these materials consistently evaded racial justice as a social issue. As a result, the materials designed to inspire classroom…

In this article, the authors focus on a one-week research project examining Frederick Douglass's civic actions to challenge racial discrimination African Americans faced before and after the U.S. Civil War. Our one-week research project was implemented at a free public charter school in amid-sized Southern city. Our project connects to the…

The present historical case study was conducted in order to examine the unspoken narratives of six African American Government Girls who worked for the federal government during World War II. The present study documented the lives and experiences of six women employed by the U.S. federal government. Their deliberate decision to become civil…

"International education" in the United States has been dominated by nationalism that advocates such understanding primarily for the purpose of improving economic and military competitiveness with other nations (Parker 2008). Nevertheless, although they represent a minority voice, there have been researchers and educators who argue that…

Difficult histories that may contradict national values are rarely taught in elementary schools. This comparative study of two elementary educators examines their pedagogical approaches to the teaching of Japanese American incarceration as difficult history. Framed by Asian American critical race theory, the teachers' practices revealed challenges…

Background: Despite its numerous benefits, dialogic discussion seldom occurs in secondary history classrooms. To examine ways to promote it, this study compared two ninth-grade classes' productive disciplinary engagement (PDE) in a whole-class discussion on the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Methods: The two class sections were comparable academically…