Serious history instruction in K-12 U.S. schools has been in decline for decades. History education in Massachusetts has, until now, fared somewhat better than in the nation at large. In 1993 the commonwealth enacted the Massachusetts Education Reform Act--a bipartisan plan to improve education--which mandated core standards and assessments in…

Jess Landy's desire to introduce her pupils to a more complex narrative of the American West led her to the life story and work of a remarkable individual, George Catlin. In this article she shows how she used this unusual micro-narrative in order to challenge pupils' ideas not just about the bigger narrative of which it is a part, but about the…

December 1, 2015, marked the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus in 1955. This incident sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the mid-20th century civil rights movement. A century before Parks' act of resistance, African American schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings was…

When planning a GCSE period study on the American West, Alex Ford wrestled with reconciling the content demands of the examination specifications with the need to provide his students with a memorable narrative. In this article, Ford shows how he drew on the latest academic scholarship to construct a rigorous, coherent narrative outlining the…

In collaboration with historic sites in Washington, DC, that have shared commitments to place-based and experiential learning, Ford's Theatre teaches K-12 educators about Civil War history through engagements with places, artifacts, stories, and enduring conflicts that can be made relevant to students' lives. In this article, we provide program…

"The Lost History of Western Civilization" is a wide-ranging consideration of the academy's role in producing America's contemporary political and cultural divisions. The report traces the ways in which the 1988 controversy over the teaching of Western Civilization at Stanford set the pattern for today's "Cold Civil War." The…

In this retelling, the student offered his best impression of an African American woman from the South, oblivious to the treacherous historical ground upon which he danced. This student meant no harm. But his anecdote, and the manner in which he delivered it, provide windows onto the racial, historical, and sectional imaginaries of the white…

Using primary sources to teach students about the past helps them to improve crucial analytical skills and gives them an opportunity to evaluate a variety of sources and to construct evidence-based narratives. These are skills that all students need for success throughout their educational process, career, and civic life (NCSS 2013). Examining the…

The nature and relevance of race and racism make it a critical topic to explore. We assert that social studies classrooms are appropriate places to engage in that exploration. However, although there are myriad resources to support teaching about racism, many teachers largely avoid the topic. To address this challenge, we used a classroom-based…

Museums and historical sites are created to inform the public about our national heritage, yet the contributions of people of color are often excluded from these narratives. Even when they are included, the researchers found that students' understanding and interpretations are often different based on the racial identity of the viewer. This study…

Using primary sources to help students learn about history is one of the most effective ways to make social studies purposeful, relevant, and supportive of inquiry, while integrating it with literacy. Constructing an understanding of an historical event, person, or time period by examining evidence from that era helps students understand that…

Research indicates that history-based curricula--specifically textbooks and trade books--about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) are problematic and limited. If race relations are arguably America's long, unsettled tension, then Dr. King was one of its most impactful figures. Using the relevant historical research as a framework and the…

Access to primary sources is one of the cornerstones of historical research. Until the arrival of the Internet and digitization, many primary sources were available only in large research libraries and archives, and students and scholars had to travel to the institutions holding these sources in order to do research. This situation has changed…

This article describes a unit-length project involving students in the analysis of how public memory is shaped by multiple factors and functions persuasively to influence one's understanding of historical events. This project was designed for an upper-division undergraduate course in Rhetoric and Public Memory, but could be adapted for use in…

To seriously consider one's rights under the US Constitution, one must grapple with the realization that many rights are not absolute. Instead, they are contested. But how to introduce younger students to such a complex concept, given short attention spans? In this article, we discuss the opportunities, pitfalls, and planning logistics of the 2013…