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World history curriculum in the United States is Eurocentric. By downplaying contributions from non-Western societies, state standards of world history in the modern era create a narrative of the West as a driver of progress and Europe as the primary protagonist of global events. Research further shows social studies teachers rely on such state standards in developing their curriculum. Utilizing the concept of curricular instructional gatekeeping as a framework, I argue it is important for world history teachers to consider what global content and narratives they allow students access to and think of ways they can make their curriculum more inclusive. I present a lesson I conducted with pre-service teachers as an example that preparation programs and/or in-service providers may utilize to assist teachers in developing a more global world history curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The typical U.S. history curriculum does not ask students to think about justice. While ignoring injustice may reduce controversy in the classroom, critically thinking about justice engages students and prepares them to be citizens in an often contentious democracy. This article proposes five characteristics of history curricula that support critical thinking about justice. These characteristics center research on culturally responsive education and justice-oriented citizenship that is applicable to the discipline of history. Studies on justice-oriented classrooms and teaching about controversy are cited to show the irrelevance of curricula that ignore injustice, the benefits of engaging controversies in history, and the way in which studying injustice in history prepares students to actively oppose current injustices. The five characteristics that support critical thinking about justice and history (CTJH) are then implemented in a series of lessons and a culminating task that demonstrate how CTJH could be implemented in a U.S. history unit on western expansion. These lessons ask students to evaluate the ideals of "Manifest Destiny" from a justice-oriented perspective. Students are tasked with making connections between historic events and primary sources which demonstrate a belief in the supremacy of White American culture throughout U.S. history and current arguments that criminalize Latinx immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this qualitative, single case study is to investigate how teacher-created curricula addresses key Native American events in early U.S. history and to determine if such curricula provided students with accurate representations of Native American content. To do this, we used discourse analysis to consider the meanings of words and phrases, as well as the underlying assumptions and intentions of the teacher-created curricula and the experiences it claims to represent. Given the presence and use of dominant narratives to preserve power systems, curricula that deconstructs the colonizing narrative and historical representation of Native Americans can encourage the active destruction of such narratives. By analyzing four teacher-created narratives, we found is that even when a teacher creates content with the intent to be more historically accurate, the curricula still reflects a dominant narrative that privileges White settlers over Native Americans. We then provide suggestions for teachers who wish to design more culturally relevant and appropriate curricula on Native American content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the problem of how to best design authentic writing assessments in history that support learners in demonstrating the types of higher order thinking skills needed for effective citizenship. Recent research has primarily focused on curriculum interventions intended to build disciplinary literacies through various types of document-based essay tasks. The authors argue for increased use of “hybrid” tasks that not only emphasize historical thinking, but also require ethical reasoning and decision-making as students consider enduring societal issues connected to the history curriculum. They offer recommendations for creating this type of task based on an in-depth analysis of an assessment implemented with tenth grade history students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines a mainstream curricular unit on the Haitian Revolution, centered on a culminating role-play activity. Cultural studies, subaltern studies, and hermeneutics are applied as theoretical frameworks to read the curriculum unit and its activities. These theoretical lenses sharpen an understanding of what it means to experience history in the classroom. These lenses are used to consider the political relations of power within the historical moment being studied and the political notions of power within the production of historical knowledge itself. The author conducts an analysis of the epistemological and hermeneutic problem spaces within this curriculum, with particular attention to how this curriculum unit might be translated into an urban school setting that accounts for marginalized student positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Flipping” the Classroom techniques and the use of Embedded Writing Consultants (EWC) in institutions of higher education have been the subject of scholarly research in recent years. However, it appears that no studies have examined the simultaneous use of both “tools” in an introductory History course at the university level. This essay examines the instructor's efforts to concurrently implement Flipping strategies and EWC assistance in a single course and student perceptions of these tools. The data used to analyze this process may assist other instructors who are considering or already using Flipping techniques or EWCs in their courses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many school districts across North America have turned to a framework for curriculum design and instruction called “Understanding by Design.” Included in the framework is a call for teachers to create “essential questions” that provocatively ask students to consider and learn the “big ideas and core processes within the content standards” (Tomlinson and McTighe 2006, 26). Essential questions guide teaching and engage students in uncovering the important ideas at the heart of a subject (Wiggins and McTighe 1998, 28). The conceptual foundation for this curricular approach and for this research is student-centered learning. Although essential questions are being widely used across content areas, a robust field of research specifically and concretely considering how exactly these questions are best employed does not exist, especially not for history courses. Through a mixed methods approach, this practical action research project determined that revisiting the same essential questions throughout the school year greatly increased students’ abilities to connect learning between units, but only slightly increased their abilities to connect learning to personal experiences outside the history classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the discourses of preservice and practicing elementary school teachers as they participated in focus group discussions about instructional materials and resources for planning and teaching historical content within their social studies curriculum. The study took place in a professional development school setting in which preservice and practicing teachers were working together to plan and implement history curriculum. The university researchers, who were the instructors for the Professional Development School courses, sought to understand teachers’ perspectives regarding bias in their social studies textbooks as it pertains to specific historical content. Findings indicate that the participating teachers spend a considerable amount of time negotiating the competing discourses that exist personally, within the institution of school, and in the field of social studies education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To prepare students for participation in a pluralistic, democratic society, history curriculum should help them develop mature ideas about why multiple accounts of the same events exist. But how can we know if we are successful? In this article, we describe work on the design, validation, and piloting of a paper-and-pencil instrument called the Historical Account Differences (HAD) survey. It is intended to add to the tool set that researchers and practitioners can use to evaluate students’ developing metahistorical conceptions. Data are presented from a pilot involving sixty-five eleventh-grade students. One group completed the survey once, whereas the other completed it prior to and after a curriculum unit designed to enhance their conceptions about multiple accounts of past events. Initially, the two groups’ responses were not detectably different. However, students completing the two-week curriculum unit showed an increase in mature conceptions. The limitations of this work and plans for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The intent of this article is to examine the significance of Carter G. Woodson to the historical development of the fields of curriculum and social studies, particularly as they relate to the evolution of the modern multicultural movement. The authors focus on Woodson's contributions through his curriculum and his pedagogical efforts in establishing a more rigorous and historically accurate social studies framework through his community education initiatives, the Negro History Bulletin, and his textbooks. They conclude the article with a discussion of how Woodson's efforts can have direct implications for social studies educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two middle-school teachers incorporated student creation of historical accounts into their history instruction. During these projects, the teachers instructed their students to (1) summarize information presented during classroom instruction on a topic (e.g., the Great Migration) and (2) explain the significance of that topic to the present day. This second component of the task addressed a curricular standard regarding historical thinking, but students' responses referenced themes from citizenship education (e.g., cultural pluralism, social criticism, and national identification). More than eighty student projects were analyzed and coded for themes. This study presents a portrait of ambitious history teaching and suggests a tactic for a civics-infused history education course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can teachers effectively use documentary film to teach history, and toward what goals? This article addresses these important questions by: (1) exploring what we know about secondary teachers' practices with documentary film and secondary students' beliefs about documentary film as a source of knowledge about the past, (2) proposing a rationale for the use of documentary film that supports the goals of history education, and (3) discussing examples of documentaries that can be shown to further the rationale presented. Although there are numerous suitable purposes and methods for using documentary film, we argue that two of the most powerful and appropriate are as a way to explore multiple perspectives and as a way to teach about controversial issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the history of the expanding communities approach, the leading organizational structure for elementary social studies education since the 1930s. Since its introduction into the curriculum, educators have argued about the approach's effectiveness and suitability. Critics claim it lacks intellectual rigor and is redundant in that it repeats what children already know. Defenders argue that its relevancy to children's lives helps them better understand their world. Yet typically neither critics nor defenders demonstrate an understanding of the approach's deep roots in U.S. education. Long before its adoption as the dominant approach in elementary social studies, educators used it in history, civics, literature, and geography lessons. This article focuses on the approach's successful implementation in nineteenth-century geography curricula and shows that it is possible to teach rigorous geographical content and processes while using this method. The author recommends recommends that contemporary educators consider examples of how the approach was successfully used in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights events included in the Colonial Williamsburg History and Civics curriculum which demonstrate the organization and unfolding of case studies. The events discussed are the revolutionary resistance from 1765 to 1776, reconstruction from 1865 to 1877, the wave of immigration from 1840 to 1860 and the establishment of the national highway system. The case study approach allows students to dig into the ideas and issues that the U.S. faced as it embarked on a political adventure. Issues covered include the establishment of a democratic republic over a vast landscape, which was accomplished in a dynamic and changing world.

This article focuses on a case history of a methods course for teaching and learning American history. The design of the fifteen-week course was described as well as its rationale and course narrative. Part one of the course was designed to help preservice teachers construct a new understanding of social studies teaching and learning. The second part of the course provides a definition for history. Students in the course witness the teaching of historical content from three different epistemological positions. The method for investigating a course's influence involves a data collection system with assumptions that the methods course was problematic for those learning to teach American history.

Discusses the origin of curriculum change in history and social studies between 1892 and 1937 in the U.S. Similarities in the reports between the committees of historians and social sciences educators; Information on how the Depression changed the educators' view of the social studies; Curriculum proposed by the American Historical Association's Commission on the Social Studies.

Examines the standards and principles proposed for teaching both history and archaeology in the United States. Similarities and differences between history and archaeology; Curriculum guidelines; Concerns about archaeology.

The article claims that the only way to meet challenges in the U.S. is to have an informed and engaged citizenry which can be accomplished through history education with a focus on civic engagement. According to the article, the U.S. is an ideal expressed in the Declaration of Independence and implemented through the Constitution. The author states that education is the key to reactivating civic life since an educated citizen is an engaged citizen. It is argued that a curriculum should emphasize how past generations have engaged civic debate in their communities and nation while helping students acquire the ability to challenge opinions and the skills needed to debate issues in their communities.

In this article, the author discusses the importance of continuing study of the events surrounding 9/11. She also provides ideas on how the 9/11 Education Trust's curriculum can be implemented in a variety of classroom settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the personal and pedagogical contexts for the development of a 9/11 curriculum. The author relates his own experiences learning of the event and teaching it soon afterwards and the subsequent development of a nationally distributed 9/11 curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]