Teaching a More Diverse and Inclusive History
JoLynn Moloughney
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Think back to in middle or high school when you were in history class and had to read from that big textbook. Do you recall how a majority of the chapter only covered the history of white men? Only a paragraph or two would be dedicated to women or people of color and often those paragraphs generalized their experiences.
So, instead of focusing on how to introduce certain topics into history lessons to make it more inclusive or diverse, I wanted to look at ways on how to try and create any lesson in history that will be overall inclusive or diverse as well as a method on how to teach the lessons.
IMPORTANT: Every single word/phrase that is underlined in this article is actually a hyper-link to other articles related to the underlined word/phrase. It is quite literally a rabbit-hole.
"Few of these stories are typically taught under most states’ approved curricula. And yet they are the stories that touch the daily lives of our students."
Before even delving into the bulk of this, there needs to be a debunking of the common critiques or criticisms surrounding introducing a teaching that is more diverse or inclusive in history.
The article "The Case for a More Inclusive History Class" by Annie Evans does exactly this. Evans explains how the negative reaction to including the Critical Race Theory into has created an environment where parents are believing the teachers are "indoctrinating" their children with history. She disproves this claim by commenting," Not all of our past is heroic or commendable. But there is room for us to be honest with our students, to teach about all of our intertwined stories, our mistakes, and our accomplishments."
Furthermore, Evans goes on to discuss how in order to achieve this diverse/inclusive history the turn to inquiry-based learning in classrooms teaching history needs to be more universal. According to the article, inquiry-based learning is," an approach that invites students to investigate topics from multiple perspectives, pose compelling questions, and examine evidence to help answer those questions." Essentially, it is a shift away from simply memorizing the content and actually connecting to the content by thinking deeper about it. It also looks at the question from multiple perspectives which means more diversity and inclusion.
However, how did this inquiry-based learning come to be and how can it be assimilated into history classrooms?
According to the article "Inquiry-Based Tasks in Social Studies" by Andrew Miller, inquiry-based learning actually comes from Inquiry Design Model by the "College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards." The model outlines tasks that teachers can do in order to ensure an environment that engages inquiry-based learning. Some of those tasks are as follows:
A compelling question that is of interest to students and addresses issues found in one or more of the academic disciplines in social studies. It should provoke student thinking and align to curricular outcomes.
An activity to stage the question to elicit student inquiry.
An activity to stage the question to elicit student inquiry.
Sources—usually primary sources—aligned to the supporting questions.
This includes multiple sources that are from the perspective of those considered minorities when it comes to history.
I underlined this bullet point because the point is the reason why inquiry-based learning is good when it comes to teaching a more diverse/inclusive history.
What are some examples that can be used in classrooms from this article?
Asking General Questions
Can disease change the world?
Introduction question to spark discussion on The Black Death.
A Focused Inquiry
Did the attack on Pearl Harbor unify America?
Essentially a more straightforward question that still opens up for inquiry, but works on a shorter time frame.
Project Based Learning (PBL)
"includes elements that increase engagement, such as authenticity, high-quality public products, and voice and choice."
However, not every lesson can be converted into PBL or teachers might not have resources to do PBL.
Side Note: Inquiry-Based Learning is only one of many methods of teaching (not just history) as well as engaging and creating a more diverse/inclusive history curriculum. I focused primarily on the method because it has interested me since last semester as it actively encourages the utilization of multiple perspectives when answering the inquiries.
"The basic idea is that students ask or are given compelling questions and then investigate those questions, evaluate and find evidence to answer them, and communicate their answers."
"It’s important to note that being antiracist and inclusive aren’t statuses achieved, but ones that must be continually worked on. And what it means to teach history is entirely different now than it was when we were in school."
Now that we have seen a method that can be utilized when implementing diverse/inclusive history the question becomes: "What steps do history teachers take to try and ensure a lesson that is diverse/inclusive?"
The article "Build Inclusive and Antiracist US History Activities with These 10 Questions" by Erin actually outlines, even though it is for teaching Antiracist American History, some good steps to take when building your lesson for overall diversity/inclusion.
The steps that apply are as follows:
Who or what is the center of the unit, lecture, activity, or source?
Who is the author of the source? What is their perspective or background?
What is the counter-view to this perspective or issue or event? Is it missing? How can it be included?
What or who is being uplifted or celebrated in this activity or source? Does it/do they deserve to be? What isn’t being uplifted or celebrated that needs to be?
Is this historically accurate? Is this the complete story? What do non-textbooks say?
Does this activity make any assumptions about your students? Does it show preference for experiences and values that may differ from those of your students?
Does this activity or source touch on a sensitive topic? Does it ask students to simulate these experiences?
Does this activity ask students to share a personal experience that could be traumatic or sensitive to them?
Do I assess my students in a way that allows their perspective to be correct? Do they feel safe to express their perspective?
The article "A History in Which We Can All See Ourselves" by Holly Korbey is a piece that outlines the fight that teachers are currently involved in for a more inclusive/diverse history curriculum. However, what makes her article unique is that she actually divulges information such as research about diverse/inclusive education on children's learning, what changes have actually began happening in the United States, difficulties for teachers, and even what resources to utilize or reuse.
The first category--research--states that," students who feel a sense of belonging and identity in school are more likely to be engaged in society more broadly." So, if the topics they learned in school, like in History, reflected themselves, it could affect the way they participate in society.
The second category, changes. It is hard to sum up in simple words about the changes, so the paragraph in the article is as follows:
"The Philadelphia district made it a requirement for students to take at least one African American history class to graduate. Montana, Washington, and Wisconsin now mandate that Native American history be taught to students, while New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois have put laws on the books requiring all students to study the Holocaust and other genocides. And in 2011, California passed legislation requiring districts to include the roles and contributions of people with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in state social studies curricula."
This is a good start in making a more inclusive/diverse history curriculum, but a lot of states still aren't there.
The third category is teacher challenges. A lot of the challenges the teachers face is having to balance this inclusive/diverse history curriculum they want to teach while still trying to meet the state or districts criteria as some of it is very outdated. However, there is hope as some states or districts are beginning to see the teacher's interests and deciding to work together to form a new curriculum.
The fourth category--resources--actually discusses taking old resources and using them to introduce new lessons. Furthermore, teachers need to utilize local and online resources, such as the website "Facing History and Ourselves".
"The more people understand other perspectives and the more we include underrepresented people in history, the more they are legitimized as American history,” says Shana Brown."
For the final source, I wanted to look at a lesson plan for a topic of history that I was interested in teaching and utilizing what I have learned above to see if the lesson plan is actually inclusive/diverse.
The lesson plan comes from C-Span Classroom and is discussing the topic of World War II. Essentially, there are ten clips outlining important events of the war and even after. The first and last clips are to be watched as a class because they are introductory and conclusion videos. The other 8 are meant to be watched independently in groups of students as they fill out a corresponding paper where the student have to describe the event or battle the video corresponds to in World War II and explain the impact and significance of the event or battle to World War II.
The 8 video topics are as follows:
Franklin Roosevelt and World War II
The Battle of Midway
The Battle of Iwo Jima
D-Day Invasion
Battle of the Bulge
Executive Order 9066 and Japanese Americans
A Holocaust Survivor's Personal Account
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
However, this is where the problems begin. If we look back at Part 3 (which are the steps to take when building an inclusive/diverse lesson), one step is to ask: "Is this the complete story? What do non-textbooks say?" We know that is World War II, but the topics covered are expansive. Topics such as the Japanese Americans experience and the Holocaust experience are large in and of themselves and have many stories to it. Are these accurately represented here? The answer is no. What these titles don't tell you is that out of the 8 videos these students are watching independently, only one is narrated by a female interviewee (Executive Order 9066 and Japanese Americans), the rest are interviews of males or male experiences. That may be passable for certain events discussed such as Franklin Roosevelt's video. However, for the videos such as the "A Holocaust Survivor's Personal Account" it is not acceptable as a man's experience isn't the only one during the Holocaust. In fact, many women have had different experience than those of men in the Holocaust. Therefore, the lesson plan does not have a complete story for some of the videos.
One thing that the lesson plan does have going for it is the fact that the corresponding paper with the lesson plan does ask students to inquire about the video's event's impact on World War II. That is close to what was discussed earlier about focused inquiry-based learning. Furthermore, the lesson plan outlines for a class discussion on the question at the end of the class. However, what I think the lesson could do differently is introduce the question "What events during the war do you think impacted World War II" before the lesson even begin so the question is already in their head. The teacher could even brainstorm some answers at the beginning of class to see the class' previous knowledge or what they believe impact the war.
Overall, the lesson plan is a good basis for a lesson on World War II, but still needs to be tweaked to be more inclusive/diverse.
In conclusion, trying to create a curriculum where every history lesson is inclusive or diverse can become a challenge.
But, these are still my takeaways I will implement in my future classroom from all five of these sources;
Teacher's need to be honest with their students when it comes to history and need to strive their best to create a curriculum that is more inclusive/diverse.
Inquiry-based learning can be an excellent tool for history teachers for more diverse/inclusive teaching as it is an easy method to integrate multiple perspectives of one event to be critically looked at.
There are many steps that can be taken to ensure a diverse/inclusive history, but what stands out to me is the questions," Is this historically accurate? Is this the complete story? What do non-textbooks say?" because the whole story needs to be told, not just the white man's story.
Another step that stands out to me is," Do I assess my students in a way that allows their perspective to be correct? Do they feel safe to express their perspective?" And, this is important because there is such a movement for this inclusive/diverse history, but teachers should take into account that some student's emotions towards these perspectives may make them feel unsafe or unwelcome.
The inclusion and diversity of history is important because research shows that the students who feel included in schools do better in society later.
There may be challenges in trying to fit this new curriculum into the district's/state's old criteria or requirment, but there is a way to do it and teachers just need to persevere in their attempts.
Resources for further Curiosity:
A podcast discussing the inclusion of diverse histories into curriculum by an actual professor of educational history.
A source that is great for finding lesson plans and resources for creating a curriculum that is more diverse and inclusive.
This is the website for the people who created the idea of Inquiry Design Model for which Inquiry-Based Learning is based from.
I am linking my first source again because, as I mentioned above, every underlined word or phrase is actually a hyper-link to another article about that word or phrase.
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