Interpreting African American History: White Students Learning About Difficult History Through Inquiry in Third Grade

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Student Identity and Learning About Marginalized Histories

Abstract

In this paper, I used a framework for historical consciousness to investigate how eight White focal students interpreted African American history through their written historical narratives and interviews. My findings showed students interpreted African American history through a framework of national progress but did not acknowledge the limitations of past efforts to improve conditions for African Americans, which are visible today in ongoing forms of systemic racial inequality. Furthermore, students used assimilated, raceless, nameless, and nonhuman language (e.g., “Jim Crow laws separated African Americans”) to describe the White oppressors in their historical writing. These findings suggest that the students’ misconceptions that racism has been solved may lead them to produce a colorblind ideology and limit their historical consciousness.

Author

• Ryan E. Hughes, University of North Carolina - Greensboro