Daniel J. Boorstin was a distinguished historian at the University of Chicago from 1944 to 1969; later he served as librarian of Congress. A prolific author throughout his 89 years, Boorstin saved several unpublished manuscripts. His cogent observations on college lectures are resurrected here. For Boorstin, the widespread definition of great…

Creativity has been identified as an increasingly important graduate attribute for employment in the 21st century. As sites of significant development of disciplinary specialization, universities seem to be the natural place for creativity to be fostered. However, there remain contestations and ambiguities in the ways creativity is theorized, and…

Students who think critically about sources, crosscheck facts, and perceive alternative perspectives are better prepared for civic engagement--all skills among the specialized literacies that historians employ. Over the past twenty-five years, researchers have identified these and other cognitive processes historians use as they read. During this…

Through the lens of nineteenth-century Irish society and through an interrogation of the diaries of one of the first women professors appointed to the National University of Ireland, this article traces the entry of women into the professoriate in Ireland. The aim of the paper is to extend the map of the international research agenda which speaks…

This practitioner reflection piece discusses and evaluates the experiences of the authors overseeing undergraduate research internship projects in the discipline of history. It considers the opportunities such a scheme can afford the intern, and the potential for contribution to historical scholarship.

This article provides analysis of and commentary on the Indigenous roots of oral history. Drawing from our experience with our institutional review board determining that our work was not research, we review literature to engage in a (re)vision of oral history research while asserting the legitimacy of our research process. From this, we argue…

College expansion throughout the twentieth century was accompanied by the growth of a profession centered on supporting student learning and development. Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) programs multiplied across the United States to train these professionals with a focus on administration, leadership, and student affairs. As…

The moment many students begin to get excited about history is when they realize that much historical knowledge is contested, enmeshed in a productive argument that never ends and therefore endlessly fascinates. Such an epiphany might occur at any time. But a frequent catalyst is classroom debate, a formalized contest that dramatizes and vitalizes…

In this article, Jess Angell shows how her department seeks to make extracurricular activities accessible to all. There is a strong focus on involving professional historians, since so many students seem not to understand who historians are, or what they do. But the audience is wider than just history students: she shows how the whole school, as…

Sam Pullan explains how a chance encounter has helped him to improve his introduction to the modern themes and founding documents of US politics. Working with a professional historian whom he met, by chance, over dinner, he was able to produce lessons at the cutting edge of subject knowledge to grab the attention of his Year 11 pupils. This…

Analytical reading and writing are embedded in a disciplinary approach to history instruction and present opportunities to extend students' literacy practices. U.S. educators and researchers have come to rely on the Document-Based Question (DBQ) to assess and develop students' historical knowledge and argument writing. However, this task has been…

Lots has been written in recent years about how history teachers can bring academic scholarship into the classroom. This article takes this interest in academic practice a step further, examining how pupils can engage directly with the kinds of sources to which historians are increasingly turning their attention: the 'everyday' objects of ordinary…

The U.S.-based American Historical Association (AHA), the largest -- and most influential -- professional organization for historians, was the first disciplinary society in the world to lead a Tuning project, launching its work in 2012. This essay analyzes a survey distributed to historians on campuses that have taken part in the AHA Tuning…

Key studies in history education (from France and the USA) are discussed and compared in order to explore their methodological issues in terms of the types of knowledge they can generate about teaching and learning. An epistemological framework that relates the history of historians as an inquiry to that of the classroom provides the criteria for…

The rise of online learning over the past few decades has raised fundamental questions about the kinds of "spaces" and "places" this mode of education creates. Do they support meaningful exchanges? Can they advance educational equity, access, and community-building? Are they comparable to in-person classroom experiences? The…