The year 2017 will mark the 75th anniversary when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 or EO 9066 on February 19, 1942. EO 9066 led to the mass incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans into ten racially segregated concentration camps throughout the U.S. This article discusses the educational and literary…

Sam Pullan explains how a chance encounter has helped him to improve his introduction to the modern themes and founding documents of US politics. Working with a professional historian whom he met, by chance, over dinner, he was able to produce lessons at the cutting edge of subject knowledge to grab the attention of his Year 11 pupils. This…

This essay explores the ways that museums educate adults, and reveals that, as cultural educators, museums have the ability to promote hegemonic stories through their displays. I discuss these ideas through my visits to two museums in Atlanta, Georgia, USA: the Atlanta History Centre and the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History.…

The present historical case study was conducted in order to examine the unspoken narratives of six African American Government Girls who worked for the federal government during World War II. The present study documented the lives and experiences of six women employed by the U.S. federal government. Their deliberate decision to become civil…

Struck by their sixth-form students' self-doubt when asked to make an historical claim, teachers Carina Ancell and Alan Kunna went in search of ways to build their students' confidence. A fruitful discussion with university lecturers Toby Green and Chris Dillon, about the challenges faced by first-year undergraduates in seminar discussion, led to…

Why do we teach U.S. history and government to students? The answer is simple: to prepare students for engaged and informed citizenry, the essential ingredient for preserving the American republic. Unfortunately, ACTA's most recent "What Will They Learn?"® survey of the core curricula at over 1,100 colleges and universities found that…

During the Great War, the Commission for Training Camp Activities (CTCA) pioneered a program in which civilian song leaders were assigned to camps throughout the United States. These men (and a few women) were instructed to organize regular community singing, train officers as song leaders, and cultivate musical talent among the soldiers. They…

The American Revolution is central to the identity of citizens of the United States. It is, therefore, rarely critiqued in the U.S. social studies classroom. This article examines how teachers can discuss the American Revolution using both a critical historical approach and the ideas of peace education, particularly the strand that focuses on the…

Scholars have hypothesized that historical fiction books are more a product of the author, author's nuanced world view, and the time period in which they were written than of the events and period depicted. This content analysis research examined how American historical fiction authors represented the Civil War and how the events of September…

The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) has become the basis for nearly every operation against international terrorism since its passage, in the days after the September 11th terrorist attacks. In particular, one 60-word passage has become foundational, both legally and philosophically, to America's "war on terror." An…

Young children can engage in close reading, critical thinking, and historical thinking when age-appropriate texts are coupled with discipline-specific tasks. Prior knowledge is an impediment, though. Primary elementary learners simply do not have much of a historical schema. Because of primary elementary students' familiarity with Thanksgiving,…

Although writers have discussed the deaf experience in the periods before and after the Civil War, no one has comprehensively examined deaf people's participation "during" this national crisis. In this article I summarize the extensive and meaningful involvement of deaf and hard of hearing people in the Civil War. I draw implications for…

The Civil War ended in 1865. From 2011-2015, Civil War sesquicentennial events took place around the nation. The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium used the opportunity to feature two exhibits on the critical role that the river played during the Civil War. Both exhibits highlighted contributions to the war effort by the surrounding…

"International education" in the United States has been dominated by nationalism that advocates such understanding primarily for the purpose of improving economic and military competitiveness with other nations (Parker 2008). Nevertheless, although they represent a minority voice, there have been researchers and educators who argue that…

Difficult histories that may contradict national values are rarely taught in elementary schools. This comparative study of two elementary educators examines their pedagogical approaches to the teaching of Japanese American incarceration as difficult history. Framed by Asian American critical race theory, the teachers' practices revealed challenges…