Thesis (M.A.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-201).

Reforming the education system to reflect a new vision of society is part of many peacebuilding efforts in post-conflict societies. Accordingly, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is currently implementing a wide range of reforms in the education system in Iraqi Kurdistan. This research is a qualitative study of the KRG’s efforts to implement a peace education curriculum. It uses critical discourse analysis to investigate the Human Rights Education (HRE) textbooks content for Grades 5 and 7 (ages 11 and 13) and the History Education (HE) textbooks content for Grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 (age 11 to 14). The study also focuses on the policy and strategies of the Ministry of Education (ME) in implementing these subjects; the teaching methods used; and how effectively the knowledge, values and skills involved have been disseminated. The approach adopted by the ME to peace education is top down and experiences significant resistance from teachers and parents. Moreover, the curriculum reforms lacked consideration of the hidden and null curricula. The research highlights how HRE contents are primarily focused on cognitive development of awareness of rights and responsibilities rather than acquiring social skills and a critical approach, and that the content was not contextualised to the reality of Iraqi Kurdistan. Furthermore, the research found that the HE curriculum focuses on the history of Iraq, Kurdistan and Islamic history and presents a message that glorifies war; it is not open to different narratives or interpretations and does not foster critical debate or an enquiry-based approach. The curriculum contents included concepts and statements that appear to instigate violence and build divisions between Muslims and non-Muslims. Despite the achievements of the ME in improving the education system there are many challenges such as weak infrastructure, lack of professional development and resistance through the wider cultural context. The methods of teaching are what Freire terms the ‘banking system’, authoritarian and not learner-centred, which largely reflects the social fabric of Kurdish society. The research identified many challenges facing teachers including the level of their commitment, skills, specialization and capacity-building. However, it also found positive support for HRE among students and teachers.

During the first half of the twentieth century, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson was one of the most notable leaders and orators in the African American community. He was best known as the first Black president of Howard University, a post he held from 1926 to 1960. But throughout this public life, he was also a forceful defender of Black civil rights, a vocal critic of colonialism in Africa and Asia, and an opponent of American militarism during the Cold War. This dissertation examines the intersections between Johnson's roles as an educator at a federally-funded Black institution and his political stances on behalf of civil rights, economic justice, and self-determination. In particular, it seeks to determine the extent to which the competing demands from Johnson's various constituencies—White federal officials, Howard University students, faculty and alumni, the larger African American community, and other Black leaders—affected the expression of his political ideas during his tenure as Howard president. Given Johnson's long public career as a Baptist preacher, civil rights activist, orator, and educator, this dissertation will examine a number of important themes, including the role of the Black church in early civil rights movements; the effect of anti-Communism on African American protest; academic freedom in historically-Black colleges and universities; African American perspectives on United States foreign policy; and the impact of White funding on Black institutions of higher education. In this manner, the career of Mordecai Johnson is used to illustrate a number of important themes in the development of Black political movements from the 1910s through the 1960s.

This project examines the politics of education, culture and black community formation in Roxbury, MA during the postwar era. Elma Lewis was active in Boston’s black community for more than half a century and through her work as educator, cultural worker and institution builder helped shape the spatial and ideological contours of Boston’s black community throughout the postwar period. Her early commitment to institution building supported the development of cultural networks that facilitated the large-scale organization and mobilization of Boston’s black residents during the 1960s and 1970s in the struggle for educational equality. She founded a school, a national arts organization and a museum, each of which fostered the emergent sense of black community culminating in calls for community control, black power and cultural pride during the later period. She was a bridge activist who established and developed cultural institutions that helped transcend social, ideological and generational divisions within Boston’s black community.

The first chapter of this dissertation is an introduction to the topics of community service-learning and Black women's intellectual history. The author outlines definitions, theoretical frameworks, guiding questions, and methodological approaches in this research. Here, Ms. Evans explains the contribution that Black women's educational philosophies can make to current practices of community service-learning. Chapter Two is a survey of the presence, oppression, contribution, and creative resistance of Black women in United States educational systems between Emancipation in 1865 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A comprehensive picture of research on Black women's educational experience in the United States is presented. Ms. Evans argues that Black women's educational experiences offer a rich historical context in which to comprehend the larger social conditions in which contemporary educators are working. In Chapter Three, the author presents four educators whose work provide clear examples of how Black women have theorized and practiced community-based education. The writing of Frances (Fanny) Jackson Coppin (1837–1913), Anna Julia Cooper (1858?–1964), Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955), and Septima Poinsette Clark (1898–1987) are presented. Connections are made between these educators' intellectual development and their work for local, national, and international community empowerment. In Chapter Four, the author details the contribution that this work makes to Black women's intellectual history. Ms. Evans analyzes the experiences and thoughts of the four Black women case studies, considers aspects of Black Feminist Thought, and outlines the impact of cultural identity on social experience. Recommendations are made about how to use historical analysis in order to practice community service-learning in a culturally appropriate manner. In Chapter Five, areas of future research are presented, specifically those areas that relate to the ideas of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and John Dewey. Lastly, Ms. Evans includes observations about her own experiences as a student and practitioner of community service-learning. In Chapter Six, “A Discussion on Sources,” the author reviews the most popular service-learning literature and surveys African American educational historiography that is relevant to those doing service-learning work.

My dissertation, "Education of Deaf African Americans in Washington DC and Raleigh, NC, during the 19th and Early 20th Centuries, Through the Eyes of Two Heroes and a Shero," investigates the education of deaf African Americans during Reconstruction and into the twentieth century in two cities. The document includes three narratives. The first is of Douglas Craig, a loss African American deaf child who was brought to Gallaudet University in Washington, DC in the mid 1800s by a New Hampshire Senator named Aaron Cragin. The child later became an employee who was often referred to as a “jack of all trades.” Craig was admired and loved by many until his death in 1936 which is reflected in the street named in his honor on the campus. The other two narratives tell the stories of Effie Whitaker and Manuel Crockett of Raleigh North Carolina, both hearing, both graduates of Hampton Institute, and educators who taught at the first known school for deaf and blind African American students in the United States. Their commitment to teaching greatly enhanced the quality of life for many students. The three stories demonstrate how political, social, race and economic conditions were very much intertwined with the segregated education system before the 1954 Brown v Board of Education case. In addition to the narratives, I briefly note the 1952 Miller v District of Columbia Board of Education case: A victory that integrated the Kendall School in Washington, DC, which was, and still is, the most influential institution for deaf individuals in the United States. The stories about these unsung heroes and many others are rarely mentioned. However, their narratives are now a small part of a body of scholarly work that contributes to the history of one of the most understudied areas of African American education and there is much more to be done.

The following knowledge overview, or SAG, aims to chart the results of scientific research to answer how historical narratives are considered in Swedish and Danish primary- and secondary history education. The methods used for collecting data are inquiries in databases and processing scientific journals. The results show that teachers are heavily affected by the historical narratives based on the historical culture they were raised in, and a subsequent consequence is involuntary tendentious teaching, presenting the learners with an already weighted take on history. Furthermore, the learners themselves carry their own narratives based on their life experiences and family histories. These narratives are not considered in teaching, leaving learners experiencing exclusion from the narratives presented in school. Thus, a lack of meaningfulness and lacking motivation for history as a school subject.

It has been widely accepted that history education is key in the formation of identity by providing groups with knowledge and understanding of their common past. Historical consciousness is, thus, formed through the transmission of history education. In the context of collective victimhood, official and unofficial historical narratives in this research became the tools for the transgenerational transmission of collective victimisation, resulting in a victim-based identity. The formation of identity which is based on either official or unofficial history is believed to lead to a double-consciousness, where the historical consciousness created through official history interacts with a sense of collective victimhood. This qualitative case study had the dual purpose of conceptualising and understanding pre-service teachers’ sense of collective victimhood as a historical consciousness that indicated a specific social identity. Data for this study was obtained using an open-ended question from an electronic survey distributed in 2018 as part of an existing project. A total of 138 narrative responses from the purposively sampled first-year education students at the University of Pretoria in 2018 was analysed using critical qualitative content analysis. Findings from the data analysis conceptualised three social identities, namely South Africanness, rainbowism and Black victimhood. Of these three social identities, the historical consciousness presented through the use of historical thinking skills was different in the way that group-based effects manifested in the narrative responses. The historical consciousness contained within South Africanness manifested in attitudes of civic responsibility and justice. Rainbowism and Black victimhood presented a sense of collective victimhood through hostility and injustice, where rainbowism’s sense of collective victimhood was influenced by colour-blind ideology. Historical-thinking concepts were selectively used in the victim-based identities of rainbowism and Black victimhood, suggesting the presence of a double-consciousness. The findings from this study contributed to the broader field of history education and collective victimhood respectively in its understanding and conceptualisation of a pre-service teachers’ sense of collective victimhood as historical consciousness indicative of specific social identities. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2020. / pt2021 / Humanities Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Detta arbete är en studie av hur undervisningen i historia ser ut utifrån ett mångkulturellt perspektiv. Jag har gjort en undersökning på en svensk gymnasieskola och intervjuat elever med utomeuropeisk bakgrund för att ta reda på om deras bakgrund nämns i historieundervisningen. Jag har även intervjuat lärare på samma skola för att höra hur de resonerar kring historieundervisningen ur ett mångkulturellt perspektiv. Arbetet diskuterar också kring vems historia som förmedlas i skolan samt om det finns skillnader på hemmets och skolans historieförmedling vad gäller utomeuropeiska invandrarelever. Tanken var att sätta fokus på hur historia förmedlas till invandrarelever samt på om dessa elevers historia tas upp i undervisningen. Intervjuerna har gjorts i form av kvalitativa intervjuer. Även frågor om identitet och historiemedvetande är med i detta arbete. Resultatet av min undersökning visar att det är hemmets historieförmedling som är viktigast för elever med invandrarbakgrund. Huvudanledningen till detta är att deras egen historia inte nämns i undervisningen. Lärarna utgår inte heller från de mångkulturella perspektivet när de planerar eller håller lektioner.

Because elementary teachers are viewed as subject-matter generalists who are not specialized in teaching history, this qualitative action research project explored my practice as I designed, implemented, and evaluated a unit that utilized effective history teaching practices. The study took place in my fourth-grade classroom which resides in the Intermountain West. The data was analyzed with Cochran-Smith and Lytle's (1999) three types of knowledge as a priori codes. Inductive processes were then used to find patterns and themes. The study found that designing this unit involved engaging in historical practices and using traditional lesson planning techniques. Further, implementing the study involved engaging in disciplinary literacies through questioning and responding to student needs during the unit. Finally, the evaluation of the unit involved reflecting on mistakes and making plans for future units. These findings added to the research that has been done on history teaching by showing how I used historical practices (such as visiting historical places, finding primary source documents, and engaging in collaboration) to gain more knowledge for practice. These findings also showed that I used my knowledge in practice to generate questions that helped my students to utilize the disciplinary literacies of history. Finally, this study showed that going through the action research cycle was a meaningful experience for me and helped me to generate more knowledge of practice. Thus, the recommendation is put forth that preservice teachers are taught how to engage in historical practices and how to utilize the action research cycle in their practice.