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K-12 history

Oklahoma announces a “complete overhaul” of its social studies curriculum. The state is relying on an “A-List Executive Review Committee” of conservative activists

John Fea   |  July 11, 2024

Here is the Washington Examiner: Oklahoma’s top education official is overhauling the state’s social studies curriculum to emphasize American exceptionalism to combat what he says is left-wing messaging that teaches children to “hate America.” In a document obtained by the Washington Examiner, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction […]

American Historical Association: “Media accounts of a politically charged war for the soul of social studies are overblown”

John Fea   |  May 22, 2024

I missed this piece when it was first published in Time back in March. It is written by Jim Grossman of the American Historical Association and three AHA researchers. A taste: For the past half-decade, amid overheated rhetoric contesting the […]

Sam Wineburg’s Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) is leaving Stanford and becoming a non-profit

John Fea   |  November 9, 2023

Big news for K-12 history teachers! The Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) is “spinning out of Stanford University” to become the Digital Inquiry Group (DIG), an independent nonprofit organization. Here’s more: Here are some frequently asked questions that I took […]

The American Historical Association responds to the Florida African American history standards

John Fea   |  August 29, 2023

Here is AHA Executive Director Jim Grossman: The Florida Board of Education approved new standards of instruction in African American history on July 19, 2023. A firestorm of protest erupted immediately from a range of public figures (including the vice president of […]

Do you want to make the past more interesting for your students? Focus on contingency.

John Fea   |  August 25, 2023

In my book Why Study History (revised second edition coming in March 2024!) I introduce students and other readers to Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke’s five Cs of historical thinking. They are change over time, context, causality, complexity, and contingency. […]

The integrity of history education in colleges and universities is under threat

John Fea   |  January 25, 2023

Jim Grossman, the executive director of the American Historian Association, and Jeremy C. Young, the senior manager for free expression and education at PEN America, weigh-in on attempts by state legislatures to influence what happens in K-12 history classrooms. Here […]