The Writing Civic Histories Project (Poster 12)

• In Event: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research
  In Invited Poster Session: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research Poster Session

Abstract

Amid bipartisan calls to expand civic education, an opportunity is hiding in plain sight: the high school history classroom. This dissertation uses design-based research to co-investigate with high school social studies teachers whether a productive approach to civic education lies in a new genre of historical writing– civic histories– that examines past-present connections. Preliminary findings highlight three core dilemmas: 1) a tension between the importance of content coverage and giving students time to develop their writing process; 2) a tension between assigning present-oriented civic histories that motivate students and pre-existing curriculum that focuses on the distant past; 3) a tension between teachers’ desires for students to be authentically motivated, and their beliefs that rote, prescriptive writing is what students need.

Author

• Andrew del Calvo, Rutgers University - New Brunswick