Oral History as Inquiry: Using Digital Oral History Collections to Teach School Desegregation

A body of literature in both history and history education indicates that when it comes to contemporary historical issues, oral history is one of the essential sources to investigate the past, particularly as a source for “history from below,” experiences of those who were undocumented or ill-recorded. Most of all, with new digital technologies, oral histories are more accessible than ever to those who are interested in using them in their research and teaching. This article uses the topic of school desegregation as a case study to highlight the value of oral histories as a historical methodology for studying the past and a pedagogical tool for teaching

Collective Memories of the Second World War in History Textbooks from China, Japan and South Korea

Informed by recurring international controversies, this study explores representations of the Second World War as official history in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean secondary-level textbooks and theorizes about how they influence and function as collective memories about this time period.  Using grounded theory, it finds that the examined Japanese textbooks tend to present the Second World War in chronological order with a passive voice and avoid discussing why the war occurred and how it ended; the examined Chinese textbooks develop narratives in chronological order as well, but thematic units are structured to highlight the coalition of Mao’s Communist Party and the Chang Kai-Shek’s Nationalists as the decisive factor in the victory against Japanese imperialists contributing to the worldwide fight against fascism; the examined Korean textbooks tend toward a single, patriotic perspective of a people that overcame Japanese colonialism and developed as an independent nation, often ignoring issues that complicated relationships between the two nations.

Mirroring Ourselves: Teacher Educators of Color Reading Multicultural Texts

During the last few decades, U.S. classrooms have experienced dramatic demographic changes. This article is based on the results of a larger self-study in which four teacher educators of color participated in a book club designed to discuss the pedagogical possibilities of Yoko Kawashima Watkins\u27 So Far from the Bamboo Grove (1986) and its sequel, My Brother, My Sister, and I (1994), in their teacher education courses. Filling the gap in research, the authors focused on responding to the following questions: (1) What happens when teacher educators of color talk about a multicultural text? How do they read the multicultural text? How do they want to teach the text? and (2) How does their membership in the culture depicted in the book impact the ways they read and teach the multicultural text? In doing so, the authors add additional voices from teacher educators of color to the growing body of literature on the professional development of teacher educators in multicultural teacher education. For the purpose of this study, the authors also define multicultural literature as literature by and about people who are members of groups considered to be outside the socio-political mainstream of the United States, more specifically books by and about people of color

Developing a Student Learning Strategy to Bridge Virtual Learning and Hands-On Activity

This paper addresses the effectiveness of combined virtual and physical hands-on activities in students’ learning which was infused in the capstone senior design project. Senior design projects are open-ended and are similar to the research that scientists perform toward a more comprehensive understanding of nature or new scientific knowledge. As a reinforced learning methodology to greatly assist students’ reasoning and problem-solving skills, virtual learning was first integrated at the planning stage of their projects. This approach is in contrast with the typical senior design courses where only limited resources are available for planning experiments. Using virtual learning, students are able to revisit or learn new background theories and principles and identify and test a hypothesis before they actually engage in physical hands-on activities. This reinforced learning strategy efficiently guided students in preparing, confronting, and tackling the open-ended, inquiry-based problem with solid theoretical knowledge and principles. As a result it provided better planning for the physical hands-on activities. When engaged with physical hands-on activities, virtual laboratories were also be used to identify the disparity between theoretical and experimental results and additional activities designed to interpret the differences. This practice truly allowed students to experience the entire scientific process from solid theoretical reasoning obtained from virtual laboratories, to designing their own activities, to initial observations, and to follow-on activities based on the results of earlier activities. Our evaluation indicates that pedagogical modules of team based investigation using virtual and physical hands-on activities were very effective for students\u27 learning

Effects of Motivational Prompts on Motivation, Effort, and Performance on a Low-Stakes Standardized Test

Increased demands for accountability have placed an emphasis on assessment of student learning outcomes. At the post-secondary level, many of the assessments are considered low-stakes, as student performance is linked to few, if any, individual consequences. Given the prevalence of low-stakes assessment of student learning, research that investigates the relationship between student motivation, effort, and performance on low-stakes tests is warranted as these tests are increasingly being used to make judgments about the quality of student learning. This quasi-experimental study was conducted at a public mid-sized university with 87 undergraduate students enrolled in four 100-level general education courses. The researchers examined the effects of motivational prompts on student motivation, effort, and performance on a low-stakes test. Results indicated that motivational condition had a significant effect on students\u27 performance as measured by total mean scores on a low-stakes standardized test. Students in the personal motivational condition outperformed students in the other conditions. However, motivational prompts were not found to affect students\u27 critical thinking subscores or self-reported effort and importance scores

Experiences of African American Teachers in Desegregated PK–12 Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

This literature review reports findings from 19 empirical studies on the experiences of African American teachers in PK–12 desegregated schools. The research questions were: What do we know about the experiences of African American teachers in desegregated PK–12 schools? What are the challenges African American teachers experience in desegregated PK–12 schools? In response to these questions, the article first discusses school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education decision and its impact on African American teachers as a historical backdrop. Findings from 19 studies were analyzed through grounded theory. Two core themes were identified from our findings: persistent structural challenges and new challenges since Brown. Subthemes, such as intercultural conflicts, teacher experience as a social construct, and a gap in research, were also identified. These themes were discussed in comparison to challenges of African American teachers during the process of school desegregation after the Brown decision

Historical Fiction in English and Social Studies Classrooms: Is It a Natural Marriage?

(First paragraph) The authors report outcomes of a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort through a study group developed to make connections across content areas (English and history/social studies) and grade levels (middle school, high school, and college)

Fostering Habits of Mind: A Framework for Reading Historical Nonfiction Illustrated by the Case of Hitler Youth

A disciplinary literacy approach encourages students to engage with nonfiction in a way that allows them to consider discipline-specific tasks associated with understanding the past and exploring the world around them. In this article, we offer a three-part framework ELA and social studies teachers can use when fostering students\u27 responses to historical nonfiction and encouraging investigations of the past. This article introduces each part of the framework, using Hitler Youth (2005) by Susan Bartoletti. We discuss Hitler Youth in two ways. We first illustrate how Bartoletti used the three habits of mind in her writing and then list ways in which middle school ELA and social studies teachers model these habits of mind for students

Simple Yet Complicated: U.S. History Represented in South Korean History Textbooks

Framing history/social studies textbooks as a social construction designed to create a public memory of a national history and history of the Other, we investigated how U.S. history is represented in South Korea\u27s social studies textbooks and what images and ideas of the United States are encouraged for South Korean students to take. To answer this question, we conducted a content analysis of the presentation of U.S. history in middle school social studies textbooks used in South Korean schools. Our findings show that (1) South Korea\u27s textbook accounts of U.S. history predominantly portray the United States as a world leader in democracy and peace building; (2) the textbook accounts of U.S. history generally miss the events and figures that have historical significance for U.S. domestic contexts; and (3) the history of controversial U.S.–Korea relations as well as learning opportunities for historical thinking are also missing in the textbook accounts

Immigration, Imagined Communities, and Collective Memories of Asian American Experiences: A Content Analysis of Asian American Experiences in Virginia U.S. History Textbooks

This study explores how Asian American experiences are depicted in four high school U.S. history textbooks and four middle school U.S. history textbooks used in Virginia. The analytic framework was developed from the scholarship of collective memories and histories of immigration in Asian American studies. Content analysis of the textbooks suggests the overall narrative of Asian American history in U.S. history textbooks aligns with the grand narrative of American history, that is, the “story of progress.” This major storyline of Asian Americans – that they suffered from nativist racism and discrimination for a long time, overcame these obstacles through their hard work and efforts, and achieved the American dream – fits well into the master narrative of American progress, highlighting the process of their belonging to the U.S. as citizens. This storyline misrepresents the realities and diversity among Asian ethnic groups and their migration histories as well as the fluid nature of their identities across national borders. These findings stress the continued challenges in representing Asian American experiences as well as other marginalized groups in U.S. history textbooks