Textbooks and Teaching
Since 1992, the annual “Textbooks and Teaching” section has sought to bring questions of teaching into the pages of the JAH. Originally designed to review the treatment of different historical fields and topics in American history textbooks, the section has in recent years focused more often on teaching practices, methods, and resources. In the words of former contributing editors Peter Filene and Peter Wood, the “Textbooks and Teaching” section aims “to provide a site where teachers exchange exciting ideas about how they convey history to their audiences inside classrooms as well as beyond.”
Recent “Textbooks and Teaching” sections have explored the pedagogy and content of the U.S. history survey, the uses of digital technology in teaching U.S. history, the role of the “scholarship of teaching and learning” for studying our own teaching practices, and the historical skills and preconceptions of entering college students.
The “Textbooks and Teaching” section appears in the March issue of the JAH. The focus of the section is determined roughly one year prior to publication. For 2009, the topic is “rethinking the history curriculum” (see below for description). Essays generally run 10-20 pages in length (double-spaced) and follow the same guidelines of format and citation as JAH articles. The section is also made freely available online, along with additional resources and syallbi.
Scott Casper, professor of history at the University of Nevada, Reno, is the contributing editor for the “Textbooks and Teaching” section of the Journal of American History. He welcomes suggestions for annual themes, manuscripts related to the teaching of U.S. history, and proposals for submissions. Unsolicited manuscripts are reviewed with an eye toward whether they might fit within upcoming sections or help shape potential future themes. Professor Casper may be reached at casper at unr dot edu .
Read “Textbooks and Teaching” online >
Textbooks and Teaching 2009: Rethinking the History Curriculum
The theme of the March 2009 section is “rethinking the History curriculum”: not just one course or another (e.g., the survey), but attempts to re-imagine what a collegiate history education ought to provide for students.
Toward this end, we seek to gather several “reports from the field” from departments that have thought collectively about the History curriculum and its objectives, and have revised or replaced the traditional model that starts with surveys and moves to period or regional histories, then to specialized courses and perhaps a senior project.
Each piece should describe a department’s attempt to rethink the history curriculum, ideally after departmental consideration of various issues: objectives for students’ learning, especially methodological; the relationship between breadth and depth at different levels of curriculum; the relationship between a history curriculum and other institutional imperatives (e.g., attracting students to core-requirement or group-requirement courses, pressures to teach large courses, depending on the nature of the institution). The pieces could also describe the results of curricular change: has the revision accomplished the goals that the department imagined? What remains to be accomplished?
If your department has done this kind of collective thinking (even if the rethinking and curricular revision are still in progress) and wishes to share its process with readers of the Journal of American History, we welcome proposals and submissions. Please send email to casper at unr dot edu, ideally by June 30, to indicate your interest in participating. (Full drafts will be due in early September.)
Potential Future Themes
The following list is not definitive or exhaustive. Suggestions are welcome.
- Teaching U.S. History outside the United States
- Developing the Next Generation of History Teachers
- Public History in the Undergraduate Experience
