Historians teaching undergraduates have grown accustomed to hearing a refrain in media outlets and increasingly from parents: history and other humanities majors fail to prepare students adequately for professional success after graduation. Although certainly not new, this perception has gained traction over the past decade as parents push their…

As new teachers confront the realities of a Trump administration characterized by a troublingly tenuous grasp of history, we advocate for infusing historical thinking into all facets of elementary teacher education. Historical thinking can promote an inquiry stance, ably contribute to social justice initiatives, and enable teachers to appreciate…

At the turn of the 20th century, Pink Teas (alternately known as "suffrage teas") were held by women who championed women's right to vote. In this article, the author provides historical background on Pink Teas and ideas of how to teach about them in the elementary classroom.

In 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union: over-65s were more than twice as likely to vote for Brexit as under-25s, amidst campaign rhetoric steeped in colonial nostalgia. This article explores how this generation was taught in many English state schools to imagine Britain's place in the world during a period of rapid decolonisation from…

This qualitative case study examines the impact of a workshop on culturally responsive teaching on preservice elementary teacher candidates' ability to conceptualize and apply culturally responsive instruction. The "Rethinking Columbus" workshop teaches students to read critically as text detectives, asking questions such as, "Whose…

This paper invites the reader to consider the notion of the 'local in primary history' and the impact of placing the child at the heart of all primary history, thus considering 'the child as the local'. It argues for children to be engaged, inspired and empowered in their learning, a move is needed from the traditional approach of 'local history'…

All modern nation-states have periods of difficult history that teachers fail to address or address inadequately. The authors present a framework for defining difficult histories and understanding what makes them difficult. These events 1) are central to a nation's history, 2) contradict accepted histories or values, 3) connect with present…

Professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) generally draws heavily on the principle of providing instruction in line with what teachers are expected to do in their classroom. So far, however, relatively little is known about how this impacts teachers' educational beliefs, even though these beliefs ultimately determine their classroom…

Following recent studies that have mapped history of education research practices, this article aims to map contemporary history of education teaching practices. Drawing on data from interviews with history of education university lecturers and a global digital survey, we explore the rationale behind teaching practices and teaching beliefs in…

As the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of World War 1 draw to a close, it is timely to reflect on what we have learnt about that time in our history. This study used the "New Zealand School Journal" as a data source to investigate what school children were learning about the war at the time. In this article, we discuss the overt…

In this article, which is based on Huijgen's PhD dissertation "Balancing between the past and the present", Tim Huijgen and Paul Holthuis present the results of an experimental method of teaching 14-16-year-old students to contextualise their historical studies in a different way. In the four lessons described, students' initial…

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.

Engagement and motivation are ones of the main factors that impact the student performance during a learning process. The reason why, introducing Gamification in learning aims to improve the learning process, by making use of the motivating effects of digital game elements and techniques. However, summarizing Gamification into a set of technical…

Every semester, instructors of general education survey classes in history struggle with the same questions as they rewrite their syllabi: How can I get my students to engage more deeply into writing and research? How can I help them develop their problem solving and critical thinking skills? How can I make history more interesting to non-history…

Imagining what it was like to live in the past may help secondary school students to understand historical developments and situations. In this case study, the opportunities of a drama task are explored by using a mixed-method approach. In small groups, Dutch 14-15-year-old students examined historical sources and produced a short film clip on…