The current political trends to ban the teaching of race and racism in public schools, to eliminate Advanced Placement African American Studies classes, and to whitewash U.S. history standards, maintain hegemonic discourses, while simultaneously devaluing the teaching of Black histories and sanitizing the legacy of race and racism in U.S. society.…

In this interpretative case study, the researcher examined the beliefs and practices of three self-identifying culturally relevant social studies teachers related to their teaching of U.S. history at a racially and ethnically diverse urban high school. The teachers displayed beliefs and practices that were aligned with the core criteria of…

Hannah Arendt's essays about the 1957 crisis over efforts of a group of youth, the "Little Rock Nine," to desegregate a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, reveal a tension in her vision of the "public." In this article Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy look closely at the experiences of the youth desegregating the school,…

Infusing content about elections has not been an issue for social studies teachers, but rather contextualizing race discourse in discussions of elections has served as a curricular cessation for social studies teachers. This is especially concerning given that teachers' attempts to remain neutral with regards to race consequently results in a lack…

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,…

Understanding how to engage history teachers in effective professional development, rooted in pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), is critical with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. In this study, we utilized Grant and Gradwell's (2010) notion of ambitious teachers, which built upon Shulman's (1986) concept of PCK, to…

What were you doing on September 11th? This seems like an obvious question to prompt conversations about the World Trade Center tragedy, but is it a good question to ask high school students a decade removed from the event? Many students now in high school were toddlers at the time. What do they really remember from that day? Are these memories…

The authors extend the literature on multicultural democratic citizenship education (Marri, 2005) with a case study about how a highly esteemed high school teacher involved a heterogeneous group of students in a rigorous, engaging, critical study of U.S. History. Mr. Scott's teaching was noteworthy in its community building, thorough disciplinary…

In the foreword to "The Politics of Genocide", political theorist Noam Chomsky writes that denial of the American Indian holocaust is a potent force in the United States. He argues that "the most unambiguous cases of genocide" are often "acknowledged by the perpetrators, and passed over as insignificant or even denied in retrospect by the…

Basic reading comprehension and summary tend to be the focus in social studies and history classrooms, if reading and writing are included at all. But such a focus inhibits a conception of history as an interpretive discipline grounded in evidence that is analyzed, not simply accepted. Understanding the past is impossible without such historical…

This case study examines a U.S. History class where a veteran teacher uses challenging primary source documents and a debate to encourage his students to think critically about history. The teacher is knowledgeable about the subject matter and articulates a clear purpose for teaching. Surprisingly, the author finds that the teacher's methods,…

"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) The Desperate Need for an Education Stimulus:…

Students have frequently expressed curiosity about the way past events involving the United States were viewed by other nations. For instance, students have often wondered how World War II is presented to students in Germany, or what students in Japan learn about the dropping of the atomic bombs. To help his students look at events from a global…

Reported in this article are the results of research that explored which feature films teachers are using to teach high school United States history and how and why they are using these films. The terms "feature film" and "Hollywood film" are used throughout to refer to movies commercially created for a mass audience, often for…

Twelve lesson plans on the Bill of Rights are featured in these materials for Nebraska senior high school students. The 12 lessons include: (1) The Bill of Rights--Introductory Unit; (2) Freedom of Speech; (3) Freedom of the Press; (4) Free Press/Fair Trial; (5) Freedom of Religion; (6) The Right to Keep and Bear Arms; (7) Due Process; (8) Search…