Teachers need opportunities to explore the communities in which they teach to understand how the local contexts can be used to enhance the curriculum. Professional development that focuses on ways to integrate local primary sources into the social studies curriculum can help teachers plan authentic lessons for students to learn about their…

This study examines how digital storytelling, specifically through ArcGIS StoryMaps, can help Texas English teachers engage students in critical literacy while meeting state standards. Drawing on a 2-year participatory research project centered on the southwestern stretch of Route 66 in the Texas Panhandle and Albuquerque, New Mexico, this article…

Folklife, a type of inquiry that focuses on "ways of life" as its central lens, is constantly changing. Rather than focus on cultural loss or salvaging, folklife inquiry is more powerful when it is positioned to offer insights about human experience through the sharing of personal lived histories in safe and supportive environments. At…

"Pack It Up!" was a fully interactive history exhibit for all ages, targeting primarily families with elementary-school-aged children. It invited visitors to work collaboratively through open-ended object inquiry and primary source analysis. Collaborative exhibit design between the education and collections departments led to an exhibit…

The author describes how high school students can use Google Tour Builder to track the impact of local Civil War veterans by conducting research with primary and secondary sources. In the article, there is a description of an example from Larned, Kansas where more than one hundred Civil War veterans settled a community on the plains. Digitized…

Significant research has documented the benefits of using primary materials in the classroom, and for a long time, textbook authors and scholars have collected such materials for in-class student use. Teachers and researchers regularly engage with physical and digital archives as resources for their own research and for classroom materials. At the…

This article examines the development of a bespoke primary source literacy module for the study of childhood in Ireland. The BA (Children's Studies) at National University of Ireland Galway is a unique interdisciplinary degree that equips students with a theoretical and practical understanding of the lives of children and childhood today. The…

Given the recent and ongoing debates about race and inclusion, history classes can turn to the study of local groups that have been marginalized in an effort to increase students' cultural awareness. One such local history project took place in Evansville, Indiana from 2011 to 2013 through collaboration between the University of Southern Indiana…

This paper describes how a three-day summer workshop on using primary sources helped teachers increase the emphasis placed on disciplinary literacy when teaching social studies and history. Two specific issues in teacher education and practice are addressed. First, increasing teachers' content knowledge of history topics can help them plan lessons…

Lessons in community building and cultural understanding are important aspects of a 21st-century education. Through such lessons, students gain the keys to societal understanding as they gain knowledge about their cultural and historical contexts, and use that understanding as a setting for exploration of deeper values, emotional experiences, and…

Local history, historical fiction, and one of the most significant events of the twentieth century come together in this article as Jon Grant and Dan Townsend suggest a way to enable students to produce better historical fiction and improve their understanding of the history of their own area. They develop the work on historical fiction…

As advocates of engaging students in historical inquiry and of the use of primary sources to aid in this inquiry, we support the claims of numerous student benefits, such as learning to detect bias, appreciating the interpretive nature of historical thinking, and the drawing of conclusions based on judgments about evidence (Fehn & Koeppen,…

The incorporation of visual resources in academia is becoming increasingly popular. The Cousins Hereward Postcard Collection comprises 212 postcards that depict social, historical, cultural, and economic activities in Jamaica during the period 1900-1912. Illustrations include social conditions of the working class and peasantry, natural history…

As primary source materials in the library are digitized and made available online, the focus of related library services is shifting to include new and innovative methods of digital delivery via social media, digital storytelling, and community-based and consortial image repositories. Most images on the Web are not of sufficient quality for most…

This article discusses how local history can be used by teachers to help develop historical thinking skills such as source analysis, the collection of data, and the creation of historical arguments. Using New York City as a case study, this article argues that urban spaces and local communities provide historical evidence that can be read and…