The Critical Role of Culturally Relevant History in Serving Diverse College Students

Scholars such as Howard Zinn (1998) and James Loewen (2008) note that educators have too often failed to realize the potential power of history. They assert that US history classes often focus on the memorization of historical facts, figures, and events while creating few opportunities for students to learn how to leverage history to critically analyze the present. Zinn and Loewen also argue that marginalized communities are often rendered irrelevant to the dominant historical narrative. This invisibility of minoritized communities in US history has a wide range of negative consequences, such as leading students to question whether they belong in US society, devaluing their communities' contributions to it, and inhibiting their ability to understand their communities, families, and themselves. In this article, the authors argue that a critical analysis of history can lead to a greater understanding of the relevance of one's community and a wide range of developmental outcomes among students, including identity, civic, and leadership outcomes.