Teaching Difficult Histories in Difficult Times
Stories of Practice
Wayne Journell author Wayne Journell editor Lauren McArthur Harris editor Maia Sheppard editor Sara A Levy editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Teachers' College Press
Published:11th Feb '22
Should be back in stock very soon

Winner of the Society of Professors of Education 2024 Outstanding Book Award
Despite limitations and challenges, teaching about difficult histories is an essential aspect of social studies courses and units across grade levels. This practical resource highlights stories of K–12 practitioners who have critically examined and reflected on their experiences with planning and teaching histories identified as difficult. Featuring the voices of teacher educators, classroom teachers, and museum educators, these stories provide readers with rare examples of how to plan for, teach, and reflect on difficult histories. The book is divided into four main sections: Centering Difficult History Content, Centering Teacher and Student Identities, Centering Local and Community Contexts, and Centering Teacher Decision-making. Key topics include teaching about genocide, slavery, immigration, war, racial violence, and terrorism. This dynamic book highlights the practitioner’s perspective to reveal how teachers can and do think critically about their motivations and the methods they use to engage students in rigorous, complex, and appropriate studies of the past.
Book Features:
- Expanded notions of what difficult histories can be and how they can be approached pedagogically.
- Thoughtful pictures of practice of some of the most complex histories to teach.
- Stories of K–12 teachers and museum educators with the research of leading scholars in social studies education.
- Examples from a wide range of educational contexts in the United States and other countries.
- Resources useful to teachers and teacher educators. <
“Overall, this book is an important read for prospective and practicing teachers and teacher educators, administrators, researchers, and policymakers who are willing to confront the challenges of teaching difficult histories. It offers an inspiring and promising set of tools that social studies and history educators and scholars can use to tackle this challenging process.”
—Teachers College Record
ISBN: 9780807766453
Dimensions: 235mm x 162mm x 15mm
Weight: 445g
224 pages