Many history classrooms are led by well-intentioned, knowledgeable teachers who work hard to find and develop engaging activities that connect to the larger concepts of history. But, too often, these teachers are the ones doing all the thinking in the classroom. This dynamic needs to shift--teachers need to be facilitating student thinking. One…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the health problems and treatment needs of drug-misusing offenders and to draw out the implications of the findings for health education and prevention. Design/methodology/approach: This analysis is based on data collected as part of the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring…

On their visit to the National Archives Experience in Washington, D.C., students in Jenni Ashley and Gay Brock's U.S. history classes at the Potomac School in McLean, Virginia, participated in a pilot program called "The Constitution by Cell." Armed with their cell phones, a basic understanding of the Constitution, and a willingness to…

Although small in scope, this study attempted to analyze the impacts of primary sources and field trip experiences on multicultural education through first-hand narrative interviews, one year after the experience. In particular, it assessed the recollections of students who participated in a one-half-day field trip to George Washington Carver…

The authors of this article argue that it is the responsibility of teacher educators to provide preservice teacher candidates with the tools necessary to address issues of social justice and equity in their future classrooms. By incorporating a critical literacy approach, primary sources, role playing, and civic debates within the teaching…

Nothing comes closer to "the truth" than a primary source, even a primary source with wart--biases, narrow-minded interpretations, and historical inaccuracies. Students who learn to apply critical thinking to the analysis of primary sources also learn to situate sources within the broader historical context, test hypotheses, form their own…

Digital objects are becoming a critical component of scholarly research, but stakeholders show an alarming lack of concern about preserving digital data accurately and sustainably; those charged with archiving information have not yet developed strategies that will enable future generations to build their knowledge on what has gone before. How…

Local records are the foundation on which social history is constructed. However, in an era when most historians categorize themselves as social historians, it is amazing to note how much these primary resources appear to be underutilized in scholarly works. This article attempts to understand why this is so by investigating how it is that…

British Somaliland, a protectorate from which Christian missionaries were excluded, opened its first government-run school in 1938. The intention of the new director of education, Randall Ellison, was to use written Somali in preference to Arabic. This drew intense criticism from local religious leaders, and had to be abandoned. Accused of being a…

Almost since the advent of the Internet, pundits have been suggesting that at some point people will completely abandon their paper-and-ink ways and migrate entirely to digital information sources and means of communication. But while traditional news sources such as newspapers and television still exist, it is becoming increasingly clear that…

In recent years, the use of primary sources in the history and social studies classroom has been increasingly promoted as a necessary and welcome practice, one designed to improve the quality of history education and to encourage student interest and engagement. Although some K-12 educators have been wary of adopting the use of primary sources,…

On an April morning in 1775, seventy-seven Lexington farmers took a stand on their town common and started a revolution. Generations of townspeople have honored these yeomen soldiers--the Battle of Lexington is re-enacted at dawn every April 19th--and generations of schoolchildren have learned the story of Lexington and Concord. Perhaps because of…

On April 14, 1865, at approximately 10:20 p.m., John Wilkes Booth, a prominent American actor, sneaked up behind President Abraham Lincoln as he watched a play from the presidential box at Ford's Theater and shot him in the back of the head at point-blank range. Of the 14 doctors who attended to President Lincoln on the night of his assassination,…

Children's literature is a primary source for introducing young children to new words at home and at school, and children's early vocabulary knowledge is a key component of oral language, which is essential for comprehension. This column is focused on children from low socioeconomic backgrounds who frequently find themselves in a vocabulary…

In this article, one of the authors talks about a local history project that she gave to second grade students. The students were given the responsibility of using primary and secondary sources to research significant historical figures in the history of DeKalb County, Illinois. DeKalb has been described as "an urban community in a rural…