The 'knowledge turn' in curriculum studies has drawn attention to the central role that knowledge of the disciplines plays in education, and to the need for new thinking about how we understand knowledge and knowledge-building. "Knowing History in Schools" explores these issues in the context of teaching and learning history through a…

Richard Harris draws on their own and others' research to take stock of where the history teaching community is in terms of curriculum thinking. Harris argues that despite a number of positive developments in recent years, certain issues continue to have undesirable effects on curriculum design. Such issues include inertia and unclear rationales…

This article discusses historical competence as reading and understanding use-of-history as it is expressed in different texts. Students need to develop competence in the use-of-history in order to approach the diversity and complexity of uses of history in our time. The use-of-history is also an aim in the curricula of Nordic countries. This…

Jacob Olivey set out to design enquiries which would enable his pupils to reconstruct, using evidence, the perspectives of people in the past. In this article he shares in detail the planning and outcomes of two enquiries: one for Year 7 and one for Year 8. Olivey offers a example of 'the curriculum as the progression model', considering how to…

In history curriculum design in England, currently at least two loci of authority -- the history teachers' 'extended writing movement' and the national awarding body Pearson Edexcel -- present somewhat contrasting portrayals of the narrative mode for the purposes of historical causal explanation. Nonetheless, both loci suggest they are…

Using the notion of risk aversion, this study explores the decisions teachers make when constructing a curriculum. Adopting a qualitative, grounded approach, this study used semi-structured interviews with nine history teachers to examine the decisions they were making during a period of considerable curriculum change in England. Five key…

Drawing on a survey administered to a sample of grade 6-12 English language arts and social studies teachers in the American Teacher Panel, the authors of this report examined Holocaust education and education on other topics related to Jewish people and history. The American Educator Panels are nationally representative samples of teachers,…

Since the mainstream U.S. history curriculum often excludes Asian Americans' struggles and resilience, many educators in the United States struggle to teach this subject. In particular, few studies explore how elementary social studies teachers use culturally relevant pedagogy to help Asian American students analyze and critique anti-Asian…

This article examines the key category defining multiculturalism in Israeli history education: the representation of North African and Middle Eastern Jewry, aka "Mizrahim." Applying Nordgren's and Johansson's conceptualisation, the article explores the changes in this subject from the establishment of Israel to the present day. The…

Mike Hill was concerned that his students were unable to genuinely inhabit the historical places they encountered in his lessons. Drawing on fields as varied as history-teacher research, philosophy, and literary and media theory, Hill identified ways to curate his students' constructions of 'secondary worlds' in the historical past, including…

There are three basic strands to our lessons. How should we teach? What skills should we enable our students to build? What content should we use to deliver those skills? In this article Tony McConnell, who has been re-designing the curriculum in his school in response to a changed examination regimen, considers the issue of subject content. With…

This article theorizes on the role of school subjects, especially history, in multicultural and intercultural education, arguing that to ensure intercultural learning there is a need to integrate these curricular intentions in subject teaching. However, the epistemological reorganization that such integration involves will challenge both a…

High quality teaching involves deep content knowledge, understanding students and their learning processes, and complex skills of teaching and assessment. Students who experience high quality teaching tend to achieve higher annual growth rates. This study used a descriptive, qualitative research model to explore excellence in social studies…

What, exactly, is learned knowledge? And why does it matter in history teaching? Does it matter? Michael Fordham seeks to use the general tenets of cognitive psychology to inform the debate about how history teachers might get the best from their students, in particular in considering the role of memory. Fordham surveys the latest research…

This exploratory case study examined how two teachers used a comparative approach to teach genocide histories in a Holocaust Literature elective course. Through interviews and observations, we studied how the teachers guided students in comparing genocides as well as how they used survivor testimonies in their instruction. We found that teachers…