This dissertation will compare how the politics of the early American republic (1790-1800) are portrayed in educational resources and scholarly works. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate that educational materials are both incomplete and positively biased, and therefore teachers of secondary social studies should limit their use when…

The current study was used to explore the lived experiences of students enrolled in a college-level course developed within an interinstitutional partnership that leveraged technology platforms, such as Twitter® and online learning management systems, and included the participation of prominent figures from the 1960s Civil Rights Era. The focus of…

Teachers of college-level courses on American religious history generally leave out the importance of local and regional histories when telling the story of religion in America. The study of local history provides a fertile ground for understanding broad national trends in a local context. This dissertation focuses upon a little-studied religious…

This article will analyze where the Amherst Project stood within the evolution of educational thinking since the early twentieth century and then show in detail how its activities developed fromits inception in 1959 to publication of the last pamphlet in 1972. The Amherst Project began among a group of instructors from Amherst High School and…

War is one place where the complexity of victory and defeat should be explored more deeply. Unfortunately, war--whether experienced directly as a soldier in Afghanistan or a Syrian in an Aleppo suburb, or indirectly through a news item on the Internet or American television--is a near inescapable aspect of most people's daily life. Yet unless…

This study explores the possibilities for learning content that might accompany the use of an historically accurate graphic novel as part of a language arts instructional unit. During a 6-day unit, 16 sixth grade students engaged in graphic novels in ways that support comprehension, both in the context of a graphic novel text set and a specific…

Material encountered in social studies has been shown to be challenging for students with reading difficulties, including those with disabilities. This study first examined the amount of time eighth-grade U.S. History teachers implemented empirically supported instructional practices. Second, this research investigated the association between…

How and to what extent students learn history content is a complicated process, drawing from the instructional opportunities they experience; the policy prioritization of history/social studies instruction in schools; and their own cultural perspectives toward the past. In an attempt to better understand the complex inter-play among these…

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing student subgroup in the United States, and public schools have the challenging task of teaching ELLs both English language and academic content. In spite of the attention given to improving outcomes for ELLs, the achievement gap between ELLs and native English speakers persists, especially…

Timelines are a regular feature of almost all history education. Teachers and students create them on chalkboards, white boards, and an increasing number of web-based programs that allow multiple users to collaborate on a timeline's shape. Textbooks offer timelines to accompany the material they cover--chapter-by-chapter, students are told which…

In April 2013, Florida will commemorate Juan Ponce de Leon's historic voyage. Yet Ponce de Leon's arrival was, in several important ways, not just the beginning of Spain's presence in Florida, but in North America as a whole. Today, the historical Spanish influence on America is palpable--in culture, language, politics, and more. This year marks…

March is Women's History Month. While the approach to the study of the role of women in U.S. history has changed dramatically since the author was a classroom teacher, there is still a need to do more to fully integrate women into history throughout the curriculum and throughout the school year. Finding good sites to help classroom teachers and…

Over the past 2 decades, textbook publishers have made large improvements by including multicultural education within their texts. U.S. history textbooks have specifically included diverse perspectives. The increased inclusion of diverse perspectives creates a more historically accurate depiction of how various cultures have contributed to the…

This research considers how Mexican American history becomes part of the curricular canon, and what their inclusion tells us about popular conceptions of Mexican Americans. At a time of increasing presence of Latina/o students in K-12 classrooms, it is important to consider how we depict their experiences in U.S. history. To address this concern,…

We are currently living in an era of mass global migration. Therefore, it is a pertinent time to reflect on the challenges and the possibilities inherent in educating immigrant and refugee children. Because of the importance immigration has played in the history of the United States, it may be assumed that American K-12 teachers and school…