This study investigated how racism was represented in a unit on civil rights in three 11th-grade U.S. history classes. Using qualitative methods, I observed classroom lessons in three teachers' classes, collected curriculum and student work, and interviewed teachers and students to document and explain how racism was represented during the Civil…

In this article, we investigated the level of transfer of authentic pedagogy among 12 classroom teachers after participating in a three-year professional development project using scaffolded lesson study. We met with teachers for 2 weeks each summer and provided historian-led content sessions and teacher educator facilitated model pedagogy…

Writing transfer research often illuminates the writing abilities, attitudes, and assumptions college writers bring to a writing assignment, but faculty members across the disciplines may not have the tools for understanding what the students in their particular classes bring to their particular writing assignments. In this proposed model,…

The authors of this article are two teacher educators who worked collaboratively to co-teach an interdisciplinary English and US history class to eleventh-grade students in an urban high school. They wanted to ensure the methods they were teaching preservice teachers were current and effective. The article discusses the foundational beliefs that…

As a result of the U.S. Department of Education's near one-billion-dollar investment in the "Teaching American History" ("TAH") grant program since 2001, almost 1,200 projects have taken place in school districts around the country with the important aim of improving the teaching of American history in K-12 classrooms. The…

This article describes how elementary preservice teachers used four documentary films to think historically about the United States Civil Rights Movement. The author situates the descriptive case study within research about historical thinking and documentary film, identifying the need for using documentary film to think historically in the…

This article explores a two-year professional development initiative with four state geographic alliances. Professional development planners, whether planning for a large- or small-scale initiative or one with unlimited or limited funding, will benefit from learning about this successful professional development activity and how the impact in the…

In this qualitative research project, I investigated curricular decision making and the relationship among teacher philosophies, textbook materials, and classroom practice. Participants included 5 experienced 5th-grade teachers who used a comprehensive social studies textbook package, "History Alive! America's Past". Information was…

In this interpretative case study, the researcher examined the beliefs and practices of three social studies teachers related to their teaching of race in U.S. history at a racially and ethnically diverse urban high school. Using the theory of culturally relevant pedagogy as a lens, this study employed mixed methods, analyzing teacher interviews,…

If teachers are to help students develop higher-order reading, thinking, and writing skills, then researchers must begin by articulating the ways of knowing that are central to particular domains. A study was elaborated to provide initial information about the ways in which people talk about "knowing" in academic subjects as they appear…

Presents a New England History Teachers Association survey and its results. Includes questions on curriculum, classroom materials, students, and general opinions. Concludes that teachers favor increasing history requirements to include U.S., European, and non-Western or global studies. Reports that teachers rely on locally developed activities…