This qualitative case study sought to analyze and describe both the quantity and quality of African American history curriculum integration into Virginia's U.S. History curriculum standards at three points in time (2008 standards, 2015 standards, and revised 2020 standards) in the three U.S. history courses (USI, 5th; USII, 6th; VUS; 11th).…

The American Civil Rights Movement has often been misrepresented in textbooks, children's literature, and other curricular materials. With knowledge of the ongoing curricular distortion around Black history in P-12 curricula in mind, this article explores how a commonly used social studies curriculum, "Studies Weekly"®, represents the…

This study explores virtual, student-author interviews eighth-grade students led with Chris Crowe in response to his young adult novel "Mississippi Trial, 1955." The opportunity to interview the author motivated students to read the novel. Through their text-world development, students connected with the fictional and nonfictional…

Background & context: Inspired by the nature-cultures of belonging from Black hair care, we conducted a design experiment to bridge computer science (CS) education, urban gardening, and cosmetology in a culturally responsive computing (CRC) library program. Objective: The design was oriented around a small-scale aquaponics system to grow mint…

This six-day research project examined the potential for how trade books and primary sources can be used in concert with each other to develop middle school students' disciplinary thinking skills in the manners advocated for in the C3 Framework. The project was focused on the trade book "Thurgood," a picture book biography about Supreme…

Seventh-grade students engaged in a guided historical inquiry about slavery, freedom, and unfreedom. The teacher carefully intertwined historical content, close reading, critical thinking, and text-based writing -- both extemporaneous and refined-- during Social Studies. Students scrutinized primary sources to build their historical schemas over…

A current topic in U.S. public schools is teaching issues of racial discrimination in American history. There are those motivated by political gain for elected office that are trying to shut down conversations about slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws in K-12 schools while others point out the central role that race has played in U.S. history…

Black history knowledge is an important aspect of development for Black youth that has been linked to learning outcomes and to navigating race-based experiences. In the current study, Black history knowledge was measured in a sample of Black youth (ages 14-21). Relationships among Black history knowledge, conceptions of identity, (i.e., racial…

The qualitative multiple case study approach was utilized to describe the impact African-American cultural museum educational experiences have on redefining the identity of select African-American 5th grade boys matriculating at an urban elementary school. My research study posed one primary research question: How do African-American museum…

In this article, the authors focus on a one-week research project examining Frederick Douglass's civic actions to challenge racial discrimination African Americans faced before and after the U.S. Civil War. Our one-week research project was implemented at a free public charter school in amid-sized Southern city. Our project connects to the…

The "New York Times" Magazine published its "1619 Project" in August 2019 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the landing of the first Africans in the English colony of Virginia. The project is a collection of essays and artwork that argue that the legacy of American slavery can be seen today in areas as disparate as…

Within Freedom Schools, the intellectual identities of academic achievement and success for Black children are fostered with positive cultural identity and social action as the foundation. This is partially accomplished with access to positive cultural messages in children's and young adult literature. The study in this article contributes to…

Social studies teachers have to design classroom instruction to prepare students to be future democratic citizens. This means that middle school students need learning opportunities to grapple with issues of racism in our country's past and present. In this article, I discuss a six-day research project implemented in a sixth-grade U.S. history…

Teachers value students' close reading of and text-based writing about diverse texts while eliciting their awareness of the world, privilege, and power. Carefully selected literature coupled with primary sources can bridge the classroom and society. To engage modern students in America's racialized past and present, this article guides teachers to…

Africa is the cradle of civilization, yet its rich history and culture is undertaught--especially in elementary P-5 classrooms. In this article, we share Adinkra symbols from West Africa which can be used for interdisciplinary instruction and classroom management. We offer Adinkra symbols as an organizing theme for teaching in the spirit of not…