Teaching Difficult Histories in Difficult Times
Stories of Practice

Lauren McArthur Harris (Edited by), Maia Sheppard (Edited by), Sara A. Levy (Edited by), Wayne Journell (Series edited by), Cinthia Salinas (Foreword by)

9780807766446

Paperback / softback, published 11 February 2022

224 pages
22.6 x 15.3 x 1.6 cm, 0.314 kg

Despite limitations and challenges, teaching about difficult histories is an essential aspect of social studies courses and units across grade levels. This practical resource highlights stories of K–12 practitioners who have critically examined and reflected on their experiences with planning and teaching histories identified as difficult. Featuring the voices of teacher educators, classroom teachers, and museum educators, these stories provide readers with rare examples of how to plan for, teach, and reflect on difficult histories. The book is divided into four main sections: Centering Difficult History Content, Centering Teacher and Student Identities, Centering Local and Contemporary Contexts, and Centering Teacher Decision-making. Key topics include teaching about genocide, slavery, immigration, war, racial violence, and terrorism. This dynamic book highlights the practitioner’s perspective to reveal how teachers can and do think critically about their motivations and the methods they use to engage students in rigorous, complex, and appropriate studies of the past.

• Contents
• Foreword 
  Cinthia Salinas 
  ix
• Introduction: Framing Difficult Histories 
  1
• Lauren McArthur Harris, Maia Sheppard, and Sara A. Levy
• PART I: CENTERING DIFFICULT HISTORY CONTENT 
  13
• 1. 
   
  Representing Difficult History Through Images and Narratives With Museum Partners: Learning and Teaching at the 9/11 Memorial &
  Museum 
  15
• Rebecca L. Rosen, Kevin W. Meuwissen, Megan C. Jones, and Jennifer M. Lagasse
• 2. 
   
  Rethinking the Teaching of Black History: Teachers, Students, and the Development of a Black History and Literature Course Using a Black Historical Consciousness Framework 
  28
• Gregory Simmons, LaGarrett J. King, and Mary Adu-Gyamfi
• 3. 
   
  Teaching About the Nanjing Safety Zone to Introduce Human Rights 
  41
• Jing A. Williams, Christian D. Pirlet, and Mary Johnson
• PART II: CENTERING TEACHER AND STUDENT IDENTITIES 
  53
• 4. 
   
  "Step by Courageous Step": A Preservice Teacher'
  s Understanding of the Story of Ona Judge 
  55
• Amanda E. Vickery, Shalicia Hobby, and Marquita Foster
• 5. 
   
  Pacific Learners, Identity, and Difficult Histories: A New Zealand Case Study 
  68
• Bronwyn Houliston
• 6. 
   
  Perpetual War as Difficult History: Teaching Against Militarism and for Peace 
  80
• Scott T. Glew
• 7. 
   
  Teaching the Holocaust: A Search for Its Redemptive Value 
  90
• Doran Katz
• PART III: CENTERING LOCAL AND COMMUNITY CONTEXTS 
  103
• 8. 
   
  From Praying Towns to the National Day of Mourning: Centering Indigenous Peoples'
  Survivance and Resistance Within American History 
  105
• Taylor Collins and Christopher C. Martell
• 9. 
   
  "When People Stay Silent, It Looks Like Newberry Is the Only One With This Problem": Confronting the Difficult History of Racial Violence in an African American History Course 
  117
• Elizabeth Yeager Washington, Catherine G. Atria, Jordan Marlowe, and Christina Aulino
• 10. 
   
  Comparing Historical Injustices: The Possibilities and Challenges of Teaching Multiple Injustices From an Anticolonial Perspective 
  129
• James Miles and Rosie Thind
• 11. 
   
  The Paradoxical Qualities of Teaching Difficult History 
  142
• Tyler Moon and H. James (Jim) Garrett
• PART IV: CENTERING TEACHER DECISION-MAKING 
  153
• 12. 
   
  "The 13th Amendment, It Don'
  t Say That We Kings": Teaching the History of Mass Incarceration and Criminal Justice Reform Through Hip-Hop Pedagogy 
  155
• Kelly R. Allen
• 13. 
   
  Teaching Difficult Histories of Immigration at the Elementary Level 
  167
• Tara Rich and Sohyun An
• 14. 
   
  "If You'
  re Not Talking About Those Things, You'
  re Not Talking About History": Interrogating and Discussing Secondary Sources 
  179
• Lance Weisend, Colleen Fitzpatrick, and Stephanie van Hover
• 15. 
   
  "These Are Human Beings We'
  re Talking About": 9th Graders Think and Write About the Middle Passage 
  191
• Jennifer Hauver, Victoria Lisle, and Ga-Min Lee
• About the Contributors 
  204
• Index 
  206