While standards and assessments demand that students be able to recall content information, planning guides direct teachers to prioritize the development of transferable skills and understandings, and scholars of education have spent the past century debating the purpose of history instruction without approaching consensus. The field is still…

Ordinary citizens and elected officials struggle with the unsettled nature of history and America's problematic racial past in particular. Textbooks--the most common curricular resource in the discipline--contribute by emphasizing singular names (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr.), curious objects (e.g., Rosa Parks's bus seat), and ahistorical notions…

As a project in a History of American Sport class, the author charged students with researching individuals or issues in Trinity University athletics history in the period from 1950 to 1991. After investigating their subjects in the university's special collections and archives, examining past issues of San Antonio-area newspapers and Trinity…

What could two dozen middle school students, two teachers, land surveyors, journalists, divers, college professors, lawyers, archaeologists, an author, and an 85-year old retiree possibly have in common? The answer is their insatiable quest to redefine colonial American history. From geodesy to glaciology, from geology to hydrology, from…

Today, urban high schools are faced with a variety of pressures that are competing for attention within the classroom. These pressures come from a variety of sources and for a variety of reasons. The situation may involve students who arrive in the classroom unable to read or write at grade level and who display a wide variety of educational…

Describes the Southwest Texas State University course "History Practicum: Researching, Writing, and Publishing Local History" that stresses computer proficiency, teamwork, and active learning. Students create and publish a guidebook for a town, city, or historic site in central Texas. Discusses the publication process of "San Marcos: A Guide to a…