Secondary History Teachers Research Articles

The Innocence Device by W. Kowalski

Kowalski, William. The Innocence Device. Victoria, BC: Raven Books, 2014. Print.From award-winning author, William Kowalski, comes another thought-provoking, quick-read, thriller, The Innocence Device. Set in the year 2147, we meet Chago, a twenty-four year old prisoner in the JustiCorps McDowell prison-city. Each day is filled with fear, misery, and extreme poverty for many living within the prison-city walls. The only gift in Chago’s wretched life is his son, Jim-Jim, born to a female prison guard. With overcrowding and prison living conditions growing worse each day, JustiCorps develops a “good and merciful” solution. Prisoners will have the choice to walk through the newly developed Innocence Device, a high-tech machine that the Warden claims can accurately determine a prisoner’s innocence or guilt. If the device determines an inmate to be truly innocent of his crimes, he receives immediate freedom. If guilt is decided, death is instantaneous. Many prisoners choose to risk their lives for the chance at freedom, but too many good inmates are struck with unexpected death. It is soon discovered that the device is rigged, and the prisoners revolt. The highest-ranking prisoner, Krios, takes control of the prison-city, and establishes a rule worse than before. After Jim-Jim’s mother is executed by Krios, Chago is sent outside the prison walls to dispose of her body. Here, he realizes the outside world is not what he was led to believe, but despite this, chooses to return to the prison. Chago soon finds himself in a position of power, and so, must decide whether to embrace this power or save what he values most.Chago, although simple and unassuming, is a character that many readers will cheer on to due to his familiar struggles with bullying, fear, authority, and love for family. Although his resourcefulness and ingenuity aids in his success, it does not seem believable at times, and leaves the reader questioning whether his success was just luck or actually a result of his unexpected cleverness. He is, however, a character that strikes emotion, and readers truly want him to win in the end. Yet, with little time to develop plot, many situations are left unexplained, and readers are left to question why certain things are the way they are, or how situations came to be. A stretch of the imagination may be needed in some places, and with a serious tone, this book may not appeal to those looking for a lighthearted tale.Intended as an adult fiction book for English language learners, this book would work well for those high school students who are reluctant and/or struggling readers. The writing is fairly simple in style, with short sentences and short chapters. This is a positive, however, as it allows for students to read small sections at a time, lessening frustration. Simple language, mixed with the occasional challenging word, also presents opportunities for literacy development.Despite some flaws in plot and a lack of detail, the relevant themes, a unique setting, and timely suspense, this book will engage young adult readers, and certainly be a popular addition to any school library.Recommended: 3 out of 4 StarsReviewer: Kimberley K. MortonKim Morton is a secondary History teacher and Learning Coordinator with the Saskatoon Public School Division. She is currently working toward her Masters of Education, specializing in Teacher-Librarianship, through the University of Alberta. She strives to make research and inquiry meaningful, relevant, and fun for her students, and is looking to gain more experience with current technology, trends, and tools. She enjoys sports, is an avid reader of historical novels, and loves going to the movies.

Preparing Secondary History Teachers: Implementing Authentic Instructional Strategies during Pre-service Experiences

An investigation of how secondary history teacher education candidates implemented research-based instructional practices for instruction is described as a model of pre-service teacher preparation for social studies teachers. Cohorts of candidates participated in a five-year project while enrolled in a discipline-specific capstone senior methods course and subsequent student teaching experiences. Candidates were surveyed and interviewed concerning their use of, and feelings about, twelve instructional strategies developed with a focus on authentic history pedagogy. Surveys were administered three times: before the secondary social studies methods course, after the methods course, and after student teaching. A variation on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model was used to measure the levels of use and stages of concern of the candidates. Artifacts of practice, including lesson plans from a model unit plan and actual student teaching, also were analyzed to document use of the strategies. Results indicate an increasingly high level of implementation of and comfort with the strategies, as well as the developmental nature of the process. Implications and recommendations for pre-service activities in history teacher education are presented.

Building a Constructivist Practice: A Longitudinal Study of Beginning History Teachers

This longitudinal interpretative case study examined the constructivist beliefs and related practices of four secondary history teachers from their teacher preparation through their first year in the classroom. The results of this study showed that issues of classroom control were major barriers for the implementation of constructivist-oriented practices. However, contrary to some previous studies, learning to teach in transmission-oriented contexts did not result in the diminishing of the teachers' constructivist beliefs and in some ways affirmed their constructivist beliefs. Furthermore, the teachers expressed that a lack of practical tools hindered their ability to better and more frequently use constructivist-oriented practices in their classrooms.

History teachers' thinking about the nature of their subject

This paper addresses how secondary history teachers view the nature and purposes of their subject and how they think these views impact on their practice. Data were collected through individual qualitative interviews with eleven UK history teachers at the start of their careers. Their views on the nature of history are broadly empiricist with postmodern perspectives having been less influential. Their rationales for the subject emphasise broader educational purposes. The case for further emphasis on subject understandings in teacher education is made through a consideration of the implications of a lack of emphasis of more postmodern perspectives on classroom practice.

Past Looking: Using Arts as Historical Evidence in Teaching History

This is a comparative case study of how three high school history teachers in the U.S.A. use art in their practice. The following research question was investigated: How do secondary history teachers incorporate the arts—paintings, music, poems, novels, and films—in their teaching of history and why? Data were collected from three sources: interviews, observations, and classroom materials. Grounded theory was utilized to analyze the data. Findings suggest these teachers use the arts as historical evidence roughly for three purposes: First, to teach the spirit of an age; second, to teach the history of ordinary people invisible in official historical records; and third, to teach, both with and without art, the process of writing history. Two of the three teachers, however, failed to teach historical thinking skills through art.

The Cultural Fieldwork Initiative: Collaboration for Better Education

In recent years many advances have strengthened history teacher preparation. Due in large part to No Child Left Behind () legislation, preservice teachers increasingly major in their content areas to be designated “highly qualified.” Although it is not a new approach, teaching with primary sources has also become an exceedingly valued dimension of social studies teacher preparation; future teachers are taught to use documents so that they can model for students the analytical skills of historical thinking and illustrate particular episodes or chronological periods. In addition, preservice teachers are often assigned field experiences prior to their student teaching placements, as opportunities to apply what they are learning in their programs. In some cases, these field experiences take place in historical museums, giving novice teachers the chance to learn how to teach using objects and how to work with groups of students in alternative educational settings. While the literature on museum education is vast, little of it explores history museums and their relationship with social studies teachers. Much of the scholarship on preservice teachers and museums discusses teaching with objects and artifacts and preparing beginning teachers to design field trip experiences for future classes. Science education is a central focus in the literature, and the few discussions of social studies teaching and learning typically address the preparation of elementary classroom teachers. One recent study of secondary history teacher preparation found that the relationship between teachers and museum staff is underdeveloped. As Alan S. Marcus, Thomas H. Levine, and Robin S. Grenier argue, “both school teachers and museum staff are important stakeholders who can learn from each other and support each other’s work.”

Secondary History Teachers’ Responses to Historical Narratives in School History Textbooks: The Russian Federation

Secondary History Teachers’ Responses to Historical Narratives in School History Textbooks: The Russian Federation

Mapping the Shadow: Bringing Scholarship and Teachers Together to Explore Agency's Shape and Content in Social Change

History and social studies not only help to suture together “imagined communities” (Anderson, 1983), they also convey understandings about how people effect change through time. This qualitative study investigates the reasoning of 4 secondary history teachers about agency as both a question of the shape of human interactions and content of human motivations expressed through their teaching and in relation to scholarship in sociology and history. Participants account for the content of agency (with varying degrees of emphasis) with appeals to socioeconomic positions and experiences. A tension exists, however, concerning how best to reconcile such experiences with the motivational force of ideals and existential tensions behind people's actions. Relating to the shape of agency, participants raise questions about the relative roles played by, and interaction between, leaders, discourses and ideals, and social movements. This study explores the ways in which these findings reflect broader forms of cultural reasoning about agency and the benefits of bringing teachers and scholarship together around key historical concepts.

Teachers constituting the politicized subject: Canadian and US teachers’ perspectives on the ‘good’ citizen

This study examines how secondary history teachers in the United States and Canada understand their role in promoting citizenship and national identities. Building upon Anderson’s concept of ‘imagined communities’, I argue that compulsory history classes are key sites for imagining the nation and communicating norms about citizenship. While the citizenship education literature has begun to explore teachers’ beliefs about citizenship, researchers in the fields of citizenship education and history education have not examined how history teachers understand the ‘good’ citizen or the place of their subject in forming national identities. I interviewed thirteen secondary history teachers (seven US/six Canadian) to examine their beliefs about citizenship and national identity. I sought to understand how they engage with broader discourses about citizenship and the nation. Twelve of the thirteen teachers described the good citizen in ways consistent with Westheimer and Kahne’s models of the personally responsible citizen and the participatory citizen. US teachers also expressed a desire to foster students’ individual judgement and critical thinking skills, whereas Canadian teachers stressed the importance of fostering national identity as well as students’ responsibility to the collective good.

How Secondary History Teachers Use and Think About Museums: Current Practices and Untapped Promise for Promoting Historical Understanding

Museums have great potential to help secondary students develop a deep understanding of the past; however, we know little about what history teachers actually do or want to accomplish when they utilize museums. In this study, the authors draw on questionnaire and interview data from 94 secondary history teachers in Connecticut in an effort to understand teachers' objectives, practices, and dilemmas in using museums. The results indicate that while teachers value museums for their potential to promote historical understanding, a number of factors limit the quantity and quality of museum trips, including cost, logistics, and teachers' level of knowledge and skill related to museums. Many teachers view museums as authoritative and do not ask students to evaluate the way museums present the past, thus neglecting the potential of museums to promote historical thinking. In addition, teachers implement practices to prepare students for museum visits; few, however, use follow-up activities or tap museums' virtual and human resources to promote history learning in the classroom. Better professional preparation and ongoing professional development could position teachers to realize the promise of museums to promote deep—and lifelong—learning of history.

Embracing diversity in the history curriculum: a study of the challenges facing trainee teachers

This paper explores the issues that secondary history teachers on an initial teacher education (ITE) programme in England encounter in attempting to incorporate more cultural and ethnic diversity into the history curriculum. It also assesses the impact that changes in their training course had on their views and pedagogical practice. Using questionnaires and scenario based interviews with three cohorts of trainee teachers, key challenges were identified, which were related to the purposes of teaching history and diversity, appropriate pedagogy and content, dealing with pupils, and teachers’ personal concerns. A framework for analysing trainees’ stances towards cultural and ethnic diversity based upon a confident-uncertain-uncomfortable continuum was developed. The research revealed that the course had had an impact, although this was in subtle rather than marked ways, which raises further questions about what is possible within the confines of an ITE training programme and the need for additional support beyond the course.

Teaching history in a postwar social context—the case of the Croatian Danube region

This paper discusses the results of empirical research examining history teachers’ opinions on teaching recent history, and on the revocation of a moratorium on teaching former Yugoslavia’s recent history in Serbian minority schools in the Croatian Danube region. The research was conducted in 2003, involving a sample of 29 primary and secondary history teachers in both the majority and minority programmes in the two counties affected by the moratorium. The post‐war divide is evident from the differences in teachers’ opinions regarding the moratorium’s revocation and the presentation of minority history in history teaching. On a general level however, when the history of the Croats and Serbs was not discussed, most of the teachers advocated a liberal concept of history teaching.

"I Want to Use My Subject Matter to...": The Role of Purpose in One U.S. Secondary History Teacher's Instructional Decision Making

In this study, we explore the instructional decision making of Charlotte, a graduate of an intensive social studies teacher education program. Charlotte articulated a sophisticated conception of historical thinking and appeared to possess exemplary pedagogical content knowledge. Her classroom practice did not incorporate the approaches to historical thinking and inquiry that were discussed in her methods course. She possessed a clear view of her purpose of history teaching, which was to impart a particular set of moral values; her practices were consistent with her purpose; and she controlled her class to accomplish that purpose. Key words: instructional decision making, history teaching, social studies, historical inquiry, document ‐ based instruction, methods courses, beginning teachers Dans cet article, les auteures analysent une decision pedagogique de Charlotte, diplomee d’un programme de formation a l’enseignement specialise en sciences humaines. Charlotte, qui a developpe une conception avant ‐ gardiste de la pensee historique, semble posseder une connaissance exemplaire du sujet. Ses pratiques pedagogiques n’incluent pas les approches discutees dans son cours de methodologie quant a la pensee et a la recherche historiques. Elle a une notion claire du but qu’elle poursuit en enseignant l’histoire, a savoir la transmission d’un ensemble precis de valeurs morales. Ses pratiques vont de pair avec ce but et elle controle sa classe de maniere a atteindre son objectif. Mots cles : decision pedagogique, enseignement de l’histoire, sciences humaines, recherche historique, enseignement a l’aide de documents, cours de methodologie, jeunes enseignants

Explaining History In A Nutshell

This essay offers an approach that introduces undergraduate students to the nature of historical inquiry. Samuel Wineburg and Janice Fournier have shown that merely taking a number of history courses will not automatically mean that students will think historically.1 Many high school and college history courses and the textbooks they use are infonnation-driven,2 and unless they are specifically designed to immerse students in the mindset and methodology of the discipline, thinking historically will remain out of reach. This approach can also be used in classes with future secondary history teachers, many of whom have little or no background in history and yet will have the responsibility of teaching the subject. A disturbing 53.9 percent of seventh- to twelfth-grade students who take courses in United States history and world history have teachers who have not majored or even minored in history.3

On becoming a secondary science teacher in England: a pilot study

Using data derived from interviews of small groups of secondary school science teachers, this paper offers insights into how they came to enter school teaching. Together with other data drawn from parallel interviews with another small group of secondary school history teachers in the same schools, conducted initially for comparative purposes, the paper suggests that, in both cases, the decision to teach is the outcome of a number of unpredictable and contingent factors, rather than a response to a sense of vocation or any initial long‐term commitment to the profession. The implications of these findings for theoretical approaches to understanding career choice and for teacher recruitment are briefly explored.