This paper conceptualises one possible antidote to the conditions that produce public mass gun violence (PMGV) in the United States. I begin by illuminating how PMGV is a backlash to the nation's 'founding' on the violent divisions of colonisation and coloniality. I then inquire: If PMGV is a reflection of a deep societal wound, what methodologies…

This article builds on existing research on cross-curricular methodology and outlines a teaching technique that integrates presidential history during physical education class for middle school students.

This essay gives a broad overview of a team-taught course on Alexander Hamilton that merges discourses in music theory and political science. Authors describe pedagogical approaches to teaching both the musical "Hamilton" to non-musician students and Hamilton's history and politics to students not majoring in these fields. Contrasting…

Introducing patriotic holidays such as Veterans Day with historical photographs and other primary sources in classrooms can not only spark children's interest, but also promote critical thinking and historical comprehension. Meaningful, hands-on historical lessons can also motivate children to take informed action about issues they care about. We…

In this article we outline the importance of reinserting the voices, experiences, and contributions of Black women as critical citizens into the narrative of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement. In order to examine the history of Black women as critical civic agents, teachers must interrogate how Black women's raced and gendered identities…

Children's literature provides elementary teachers and students the opportunity to critically engage in the world around them. However, too often teachers choose not to engage students in discussions of complex social issues out of a sense of fear or discomfort. In this paper, we explore the reflections of 11 teachers who chose to engage their…

The Economics Across the Curriculum approach encourages the integration of economic concepts into various disciplines. This article features the essence of the approach built on best practices described in the literature. Several creative lesson ideas for teaching about money and inflation are showcased. These lessons were field-tested by high…

This article describes a fourth grade project involving elementary students, their teachers, elementary preservice teachers, and university faculty. The project focused on a work of juvenile historical fiction, culminating in social studies lessons that were interdisciplinary. This collaboration between educators was made possible by a…

Contemporary American education initiatives mandate half of all English language arts content is non-fiction. History topics, therefore, will increase within all elementary and English language arts middle level classrooms. The education initiatives have rigorous expectations for students' close readings of, and written argumentation about,…

In the period from roughly 1915 to 1935, many African Americans undertook an ambitious campaign to remake their image in mainstream (white) American society. This New Negro Movement (NNM)--a term that the author uses purposefully in contradistinction to "Harlem renaissance"--can be studied in the classroom, allowing history teachers to introduce…

Teaching for cultural understanding has always posed many challenges regarding exactly what should be taught and how it should be presented. For instance: should students be taught a list of facts about another culture, which may lead to stereotyping? Should there be comparison between one's own and another culture, which may involve dealing with…

Since the election of 1796, buttons, slogans, and, most importantly, symbols have become a mainstay of the American election system. The log cabin symbolized the childhoods of Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln; the sun represented hope on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election posters. Many people without formal instruction in what symbols…

The "International Society for the Social Studies (ISSS) Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. The following papers are included in the 2016 proceedings: (1) The Emergence of Social Studies in Trinidad and Tobago (Leela Ramsook); (2) Opinions of…

In this article, the author discusses how she developed an innovative, interdisciplinary unit in eighth-grade English that links with the history teacher's Civil War studies. When constructing lesson plans, the author needed to rely on her sympathetic connection with students. To determine the best way to help students learn, the author had to ask…

This article presents an interview with Ronald Takaki, a prolific and respected author and a successful teacher who wrote a number of important histories that explore the cultural diversity of the United States of America, including "From Different Shores: Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America" (1994), "Strangers from a…