"Why do people hate history classes?" That is a common question that the author, like countless other history instructors, poses to his students on the first day of class. From a recent survey of the author's "Introduction to Asian American History" course, which the author has taught at the University of California, Los…

There is a general perception that methods courses are not as interesting as upper-division content courses. The author admits that they were among those who believed this. In this essay, the author explains how they used backwards design to structure the "History Research Methods" course and how they scaffolded assignments throughout…

As former elementary classroom teachers and current teacher educators, the authors teach, research, and advocate for anti-oppressive elementary social studies education. In their current role as teacher educators, they consider it our responsibility and mission to facilitate a social studies methods course that prepares pre-service teachers (PSTs)…

"Isn't this just common sense? I don't see the point of having to read this," a student in a pre-service introductory methods class groaned. In another class, a student questioned why so much space in an article was devoted to race, stating that it seemed unnecessary and was "common sense." While the pre-service teachers…

The purpose of this article is to discuss the opportunities and challenges of using students' personal narratives of the past as a vehicle and catalyst for learning history. The point of departure is a research project entitled "My Historical Backpack," conducted at Örebro University in Sweden since the fall of 2016. The project is a…

Today, close to 300 graduate-level higher education and student affairs (HESA) programs exist nationally, and the Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) recommends studying the historical context of higher education as part of the curriculum. The strong social justice emphasis within HESA programs offers a valuable hook for introducing the…

The class research project, "Chronicling Grassroots Suffrage in Warrensburg," served as a semester-long project for the Fall 2019 course, "Democracy Denied: Women's Rights in America, 1800-Present." This paper argues that local and state history research projects like "Chronicling Grassroots Suffrage in Warrensburg"…

Teaching about slavery entails teaching about the archive. Punctuated with silences, scattered with compelling details, and laden with descriptions that oscillate between racist, harrowing, and heartbreaking, runaway ads provide a glimpse into the lives of enslaved people. The details embedded within them--or omitted from them--can also provide…

In 2014, at Rollins College, a liberal arts college in central Florida, the history department completely revised its curriculum. Like their peers across the history discipline, Rollins history faculty saw a disconnect between its traditional curriculum--with a stress on lecture and memorization--and the actual process of doing history. Colleges…

During the past decade, interest in chocolate and its history has increased significantly. Following on this trend, a vast number of books dealing with chocolate have appeared in different publishing venues, both academic and nonacademic. Similarly, some instructors have included units that study the commodity or, in some rare instances, have…

In this article, the author describes their class, titled "The World in A Year: A Global History of 1948," that was created to give students exposure to a set of events that, when scaffolded strategically, highlighted themes and processes featured in most global history courses: imperialism, environmental change, social hierarchy,…

Food is perfectly positioned to link students' lives to the deep and broad historical forces around them. Like everybody else, students procure and consume food on a daily basis, use it to mark special occasions, share it with friends, enjoy or dispute it with families, all perhaps without ever considering its potential for historical analysis.…

Art can be of great benefit for students to learn about history. This article presents results of a three-year research project at the university level on the use of specific examples from the arts for a variety of courses in U.S. and European history as well as a course on history methods. All the examples used consisted of images (painting and…

World history education as a type of cultural production has expanded globally in the past thirty years. This article surveys world history as a component of curricula in universities, colleges, and precollegiate schools in several parts of the world. The author argues that teachers and scholars in the United States pioneered this field and that…

History departments at many colleges and universities offer upper-level courses that focus upon the craft of the discipline. These stand-alone methods classes often lack the specific time period and geographic region that typically anchor history curriculum. Although most graduate programs in history provide in-depth exposure to historical theory,…