Students in the United States learn about the history of enslavement throughout their educational experiences. Yet our understanding of what students from different racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds know about this difficult period in American history is limited. In this study, we use mixed methods to examine written narratives of students'…

When John Lewis sought to change segregation laws in 1960 Nashville, Tennessee, he did so through nonviolent sit-ins. Throughout U.S. history, activists like John Lewis have turned to social change tactics outside of the institutions of democracy from which they have been largely excluded. However, social studies curricula rarely frame these…

As society continues to confront the implications of fake news and misinformation for American democracy, particularly the effects on public institutions, it is natural to turn to examples from the past. Digital libraries and archives provide students with unprecedented access to media from the past. Digital history includes the raw materials of…

The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, a year after being passed by Congress. It extended the right to vote to many women, but not all. Excluded from this landmark constitutional victory were women like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, who was born in Guangzhou (then Canton), China, in 1896, but who immigrated to New York as a child. From 1882 to…

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.…

Traditional narratives of U.S. history largely exclude Asian American histories, particularly at the elementary level. This qualitative case study examines how three Asian American elementary school teachers included Asian American histories in their social studies curriculum and scaffolded student understanding by sharing their own hybrid…

This chapter summarizes the complex history of colonization of the Indigenous peoples of what is now the United States from the perspective of leadership education. The authors review the dilemmas and challenges of bridging fundamental cultural differences regarding leadership education and concrete steps toward decolonizing leadership education.

This study examines the movement to integrate LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) history into high school US history courses. Using such primary sources as government documents, classroom resources, and organizational agendas, and oral history interviews with teachers, gay rights activists, and scholars, the study probes grassroots…

Teachers value students' close reading of and text-based writing about diverse texts while eliciting their awareness of the world, privilege, and power. Carefully selected literature coupled with primary sources can bridge the classroom and society. To engage modern students in America's racialized past and present, this article guides teachers to…

During the 1960s and 1970s, the popular music genres of funk, soul, and jazz set the soundtrack for the Black Power Era. Throughout this era, messages regarding positive imagery of the African American community were produced through music. Additionally, the image of the Strong Black Woman Archetype (SBWA) was developed by the African American…

This study employs a multiple case study approach to examine the use of history of Mexican American and Muslim middle school students vis-à-vis Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The findings suggest the participants used historical examples of discrimination to contextualize candidate Trump's rhetoric and to bolster their identities as…

In this study, we examine evidence of transfer from reading instruction to students' learning of language arts and historical content as demonstrated by their independent writing and growth in background knowledge. We taught a unit in a sixth-grade language arts classroom in which students learned about design elements of graphic novels (e.g.,…

This article addresses the teaching of disability history, specifically concerning the historical figure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Drawing upon literature from multicultural education, disability history and disability studies in education (DSE), the authors discuss historical content and teaching ideas for instruction about FDR. The…

Despite its rich heritage and enduring popularity, country music has historically been marginalized in American music education, usually in favor of more "high-brow" musical practices. This article explores potential explanations for this imbalance within the context of a general overview of cultural and social considerations and…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), first administered in 1969, is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what the nation's students know and can do in various subjects such as civics, geography, mathematics, reading, science, U.S. history, and writing. The results of NAEP are released as The…