In this article, the authors discuss how to explore the agency of ordinary citizens using local institutions to combat Jim Crow segregation laws during Freedom Summer. Primary sources from Miami (OH) University website about Freedom Summer and Susan Goldman Rubin's trade book ground the inquiry. Through the series of activities discussed, middle…

Exploring controversial and difficult events and issues with young children can be challenging. The Civil Rights Movement is an abstract, perhaps remote, issue for young children today. However, it is an important part of our country's history and a theme worthy of study. This article suggests ways to use photographs to explore this mature subject…

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 is a quick overview of the Chicano Movement (CM) with specific analyses of the five major strategies employed by its adherents to effect social change. The CM was a social movement that occurred in the United States with increased activity in the southwest and midwest during a time frame: 1950s to 1980s. Persons of Mexican ancestry…

In this article, the author discusses the importance of continuing study of the events surrounding 9/11. She also provides ideas on how the 9/11 Education Trust's curriculum can be implemented in a variety of classroom settings.

The question of why students think there are two kinds of American history taught--one in the K-12 system and one in the university system--can be examined critically using Emile Durkheim's (1973) description of the sacred and the profane. The history taught in K-12 classrooms often focuses on idealized accounts of the past that protect the status…

American democratic society is sustained through debate among its citizens. Four sets of value tensions--(1) law versus ethics, (2) private wealth versus common wealth, (3) freedom versus equality, and (4) unity versus diversity--are central in allowing citizens to address matters of public interest through debate. These value pairs are the…

The Puritan effort to establish a Bible state in the wilderness offers a paradign of the forces of change, which the student may study if he is interested in understanding change instead of dismissing it as inevitable. (JH)

Domestic influences on diplomacy and foreign policy are emphasized. (MB)

This minicourse can be used in secondary U.S. history courses to teach about the social, economic, industrial, and technological changes that can be triggered by a single technological innovation. The lesson contains sequenced activities that alternatively stress right and left brain modes of learning. (RM)

Reports on a Vietnam veteran teacher's experiences and reactions upon visiting Vietnam during a 1993 study tour. Discusses social changes that have occurred in Vietnam since 1972. Compares the departure from Vietnam in 1972 with the study tour's departure in 1993. (CFR)

Discusses social and political changes in southern Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War. Describes anti-U.S. propaganda used in the schools and media in the years immediately following the war. Contends that younger Vietnamese look forward to a closer relationship with the United States and its people. (CFR)

Reports on a 1993 study tour of Vietnam by educators. Discusses the role of a secondary school during the struggle against French colonialism and the U.S.-Vietnam War. Argues that educators must acknowledge the humanity of the Vietnamese as the first step in designing Vietnam-related social studies curriculum. (CFR)