Putting the present in the past: the impact of economic, political, and social changes on the history curriculum in the public schools of Tennessee, 1945-1990.

Schools serve as vehicles for the transmission of culture and values. History and social studies classes teach students about their relationships with different members of society, and they help formulate national identity. This thesis examines what Tennessee public school students learn in their state and American history classes, and how political and societal forces have shaped what they have learned. Parents, educators, and various interested citizens have long battled over this curriculum. Their influence and changing values in American society have determined what students learn in their history classes. This paper begins with an examination of the Cold War Era Curricula of this time focused on teaching students to be responsible democratic citizens. Textbooks glorified the American experience and stressed cooperation in American history. American history consisted mainly of white men, politics, and military events during this time. As social and racial tensions grew during the 1960s, the history curriculum examined conflict in American history. As multiculturalism became a more popular teaching tool, history textbooks and curriculum highlighted the contributions of minorities and women. Increased representation, however, did not mean that minorities and women were integrated into the story. Textbook publishers often just added them onto the original story. Multiculturalism peaked in the 1970s and met significant challenge in the conservative climate of the 1980s. During the Regan Era conservative forces exercised considerable influence over the curriculum, and history textbooks once again focused on political, military, and white history. As textbooks avoided offending different groups in society, they became longer and more boring. These trends continued into the 1990s. Contemporary political and societal values have shaped the state and history curricula taught in Tennessee\u27s public schools throughout the twentieth century. Textbooks and instructional material reflect what a society considers important, and the values that they want their children to learn. The present thus becomes interwoven with the presentation of the past. What students learn about their history helps determine how they understand their society. The ever-changing values and priorities of that society shape the values and priorities of that society\u27s history as well

A survey of the social studies in fifty-four vocational schools

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

The programs of history in the private, secondary schools in eastern Massachusetts

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

UA37/44 Faculty Personal Papers Gordon Wilson

Personal papers of Gordon Wilson

Subject trend in the secondary curriculum with special reference to Massachusetts

This item was digitized by the Internet Archive. Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

A handbook for the use of school administrators and teachers of the social studies in the senior high school

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Kansas, Education, 1941

U.S. history textbook comprehensiveness : a study of how current textbooks meet the standards of Tennessee, California, Texas, New York, and Georgia

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyze the extent to which each of the four basal 2001-2002 editions of secondary school U.S. History textbooks addresses the U.S. History standards approved by the State of Tennessee Board of Education and then to draw qualitative comparisons between those analyses and the secondary social studies curriculum standards of Georgia, Texas, New York and California. This study revealed that the four basal U.S. History textbooks on the Tennessee adoption list for the 2002 approval cycle were all found by means of line counts to be comprehensive in their coverage of the performance indicators. outlined in the Tennessee Social Studies Curriculum Standards for secondary U.S. History. The study also revealed that textbook publishers rely heavily on the standards of California, New York, and Texas for the format of their products. Recommendations ate made for further research on teaching practices of secondary school U.S. History teachers in the State of Tennessee as they apply to the use of textbooks as the primary source of curricular informational transfer within the classroom

Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Cultural Change in a Challenged High School During the Implementation of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

Academically failing schools are under scrutiny from government education administrators, policymakers, and the general public, due to chronic inabilities to lower dropout rates and to educate students who can pass high-stakes graduation assessments. States’ efforts to adhere to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act have led to the development of accountability systems to determine adequate yearly progress (AYP) and to assign schools grades, as well as wholesale reassessment of current educational programs, which are often replaced with more rigorous curricula. Among curricular programs that have been sought as reform measures for academically failing schools is the International Baccalaureate Program (IBP). The IBP’s exacting curriculum has attracted many schools to adopt it as an alternative course of study for advanced students, as well as a rigorous option to build academic capacity among students who have failed to make AYP. This case study examined teachers’ perceptions of the effect the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) had on the culture of an academically underperforming high school in Valdosta, Georgia. Teacher volunteers from within the IBDP, in addition to teachers who taught standard classes, participated in a series of three semistructured interviews over 1.5 years, during which time the school made its initial application to the International Baccalaureate Organisation and subsequently began implementing the program with the school’s first cohort of students. Additionally, documents relating to the IB application process were examined, and observations of the IBDP teachers with students in their classrooms were conducted. Data analysis utilized the frameworks of educational criticism and narrative analysis. Teachers within the IBDP reported feelings of increased self-efficacy resulting from their work with both students and community stakeholders. Participant teachers in both IB courses and other programs described an overall improvement in the school’s culture