Teachers not Preachers: Teaching U.S. History amid Civic Divisions

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dc.contributorGebre-Medhin, Ben
dc.contributorForde, Kathy
dc.contributor.advisorTownsley, Eleanor
dc.contributor.authorCastner, Hannah
dc.date.accessioned2022-05-16T13:03:04Z
dc.date.available2022-05-16T13:03:04Z
dc.date.gradyear2022en_US
dc.date.issued2022-05-16
dc.description.abstractThis study analyzes 20 long-form interviews with public high school history teachers to explore how they teach about anti-Black racism, slavery, and racial inequality amid public contention. Previous research on how teachers respond to curricular challenges shows that educators bend little to the concerns of outsiders. This is borne out in the current research which finds that U.S. history teachers have a shared identity that informs a focus on learning goals for students and the logistical constraints of teaching in public schools. There is evidence of regional divisions between history teachers in northern and southern states, but there are also crosscutting complexities that complicate these divisions. In fact, across a range of differences such as urban rural location and the racial and ethnic composition of schools, teachers bend as little as possible to conservative critics. When we include teachers’ voices in current debates about U.S. history, we discover a vast divide between the practical, on-the-ground concerns of teachers and the ideological concerns which non-educators espouse. The interviewed teachers try to operate above the political fray. This is important because U.S. history teachers collectively have agency and can shape historical discourse and national knowledge.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipSociology & Anthropologyen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10166/6336
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.rights.restrictedpublicen_US
dc.subjectsociologyen_US
dc.subjecteducationen_US
dc.subjectcurricular challengeen_US
dc.subjectU.S. historyen_US
dc.subject1619 Projecten_US
dc.titleTeachers not Preachers: Teaching U.S. History amid Civic Divisionsen_US
dc.typeThesis
mhc.degreeUndergraduateen_US
mhc.institutionMount Holyoke College

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