American Lesson Plan: A Progress Report from the American Historical Association's Mapping the Landscape of Secondary US History Education

AHA Session 194
Saturday, January 6, 2024: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Imperial B (Hilton Union Square, Ballroom)
Chair:
Brendan J. Gillis, American Historical Association
Panel:
Nicholas James Kryczka, American Historical Association
Whitney Barringer, American Historical Association
Scot McFarlane, American Historical Association
Comment:
Daniel Perlstein, University of California, Berkeley

Session Abstract

"What are schoolchildren being taught about our nation's history?!" Among ed reformers and activists, the question clangs an alarm. Conservatives, progressives, and centrists will each follow with their own lamentation. About two years ago, the American Historical Association decided to take the question more literally. In the multistage Mapping the Landscape of Secondary US History Education project, an AHA research team set out to describe the contours of a vast and varied terrain—an empirical grounding for ongoing debates and deliberations about the teaching of the American past. After a year and a half of interviewing social studies administrators, surveying US history teachers, coding state legislation, and appraising district-level curricula, the team has some answers. In this session, the Mapping team (historians Nick Kryczka, Whit Barringer, and Scot McFarlane) share their second in-progress report from the field. The Mapping team situates its picture of US history teaching within scholarly histories of curriculum, culture, and the American education state—while also providing actionable intelligence for anyone hoping to navigate the current moment in K12 history education.
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